Derek Carr acknowledges KC’s domination has taken edge off Chiefs-Raiders rivalry
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is now in his seventh season in the NFL, and he’s aware of at least one of his career statistics.
2-10.
That’s Carr’s record against the Chiefs, who have won nine of the last 10 games against the Raiders. The Chiefs have won the last three meetings by a combined score of 103-22.
So while this will be the 123rd game in a series that dates to 1960 (the Chiefs lead 67-53-2), Carr isn’t sure you could call it a rivalry.
In his career, Carr has thrown 15 touchdowns and 13 interceptions against the Chiefs and his 74.6 quarterback rating is the lowest of any opponent he’s face more than twice.
“I mean if we’re being honest, to make it a rivalry we gotta win some games here, you know I’m saying?” Carr said in a news conference this week. “That would make it a lot nicer. They’ve had our number for a little bit and it kind of makes us mad.
“We’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna fight, man. And the guys know. Coach (Jon) Gruden talks about it. He makes sure that the young guys know what they’re getting into and things like that. They don’t like us, we don’t like them, there’s not a lot of handshaking between the two. Never has been, never will be probably, even though there are friends on each side. But when you’re playing each other, Chiefs-Raiders, it’s not friendly, but we’ve got to make it a rivalry, if we’re gonna be honest we gotta go win some football games against them.”
Carr talked about the challenge of facing the Chiefs defense, which is second in points against (17.5 per game) in the NFL.
“They’ve got a great front: (Frank) Clark, (Chris) Jones. They get after it. Linebackers run and hit, the defensive backs, obviously we know about Tyrann (Mathieu), what kind of player he is and then their secondary, they’re great players. And they’ve got a great scheme man,” Carr said.
“One of our MVPs in the league, (Baltimore’s) Lamar Jackson, he only had like 97 yards (passing against the Chiefs), and he’s one of the best players in football, no matter what anyone wants to say. At the moment he’s one of the best. You look at the other players that they played against ... and what they’ve been able to hold them to. What a challenge that is for us, and we better step up to the plate and be ready to play.”
Gruden also talked about facing the Chiefs defense in a news conference this week. Here’s the video from KSHB sports producer Megan Strickland:
