Raiders come out with ‘aggressive mindset’ and Derek Carr throws giant Arrowhead monkey off his back

No locale in sports has been more of a house of horrors than Arrowhead Stadium has been for Derek Carr in his career. The Raiders traveled to Kansas City this weekend without having come away with a win in Carr’s first six seasons as starting quarterback.

It wasn’t a coincidence, either. Three of his eight worst games as a pro came in Arrowhead and in six trips, the best passer rating Carr ever had was 77.1 and only once did he throw more touchdowns than interceptions.

Things weren’t looking up on this trip either. While the Chiefs were undefeated this season, riding an overall 13-game winning streak dating back to last season, the Raiders had lost two straight to fall to 2-2 on the season.

There wasn’t much to suggest the Raiders were going to have a fighting chance. Heck, we were a little over a quarter of football in and it still looked like the Raiders were going to be in for a long day.

To begin the second quarter, the Chiefs scored their second touchdown to take a 14-3 lead. Then something happened – Derek Carr starting opening up the offense.

“We try to be aggressive. We threw it down the field some today,” said Jon Gruden. “Some of the Pro Football Focus statisticians will have to scratch their head. They’ll have to figure out did he really do that.”

On the fifth play of the Raiders’ drive early in the second quarter, Nelson Agholor broke open downfield and Carr aired it out for a 59-yard touchdown.

That was a great start, but the Chiefs answered with their third consecutive touchdown drive, so the Raiders had to keep their foot to the floor to keep up.

Late in the second quarter, still down 21-17, Carr pushed it downfield again. This time it was Henry Ruggs III, having just returned from injury, who got open downfield and Carr launched it for him, scoring a 72-yard touchdown.

Suddenly what just a few minutes before looked like a Chiefs rout in the making, was now a Raiders 24-21 lead. And not coincidentally three of their scoring drives featured long passes from Carr.

It was clear that Carr was not going down without a fight. That he knew if he was going to shake the giant Arrowhead monkey off his back, he would have to throw it off.

That approach led to him throwing his first interception of the season, but he wasn’t going to let that put him on his heels or second-guess himself. They came in with a plan and Carr was sticking with it.

“I threw the interception, but again, we came into it saying we’re going to be aggressive,” said Carr.

“That kind of stuff’s going to happen. It’s football and when we come into a game with a very aggressive mindset, sometimes that’s going to happen. . . The thing that I love about this team is it didn’t matter. We knew the game plan coming in, we knew what we were capable of, so I think at at one point it was 14-3. In past years it’s like ‘jeez, we’re in a big hole.’ But now it’s like we can do this in just a few plays.”

The second half looked a little more like the Raiders offense we had seen in the first four games. It was the defense that stepped up with a big interception late. But none of that happens without the confidence that was created by fighting back against the reigning Super Bowl champs to tie up the game at the half.

“I give Derek a lot of credit. He’s been through a lot here,” said Gruden.

He certainly has. And for the first time in his career, he didn’t let any of it matter. He took it to the Chiefs and beat them at their own game. He put them in desperation mode late by going up 33-24 with just over six minutes left. That’s not a familiar position for these Chiefs in recent times. And it led to the interception that ultimately led to the improbable 40-32 win. And a Derek Carr who looked like as happy as I’ve ever seen him.

“I’ve taken a lot of sad walks up that ramp,” said a beaming Carr. “But not today. I’m going to enjoy this one.”

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