Marek Warszawski: In one victory, Raiders’ Derek Carr gets double atonement

Enter the Warzone, telling it like it is since the first day he could talk.

▪ Besides helping the Raiders end their 11-game road losing streak, Derek Carr carved up a Browns team that passed him three times (No. 4, No. 22 and No. 35) in last year’s draft.

Bet both felt pretty darned sweet.

▪ Good quarterback play sure goes a long way in the NFL.

For the other perspective, see the team across the Bay.

▪ Three weeks into the season, it’s become evident Week 1 was the aberration – for both the Raiders and 49ers.

▪ After the 49ers got throttled 47-7 by Arizona, coach Jim Tomsula took full responsibility: “That starts and ends with me.”

Jed York and Trent Baalke probably instructed him to say that.

▪ 49ers fans are starting to figure out why defensive-line coaches who have never been coordinators don’t get promoted to head coach – on normal NFL teams, that is.

▪ Colin Kaepernick turns in one of the worst performances in 49ers history. Yet there’s no thought of taking him off the field.

Makes you wonder if the pride of Turlock is being set up as this year’s fall guy a la Jim Harbaugh.

▪ Watching the replay of the San Jose State game (yes, we enjoy horror films), the biggest takeaway was how badly Fresno State was physically overmatched, something even coach Tim DeRuyter acknowledged in his Monday news conference.

Not sure there’s a quick fix for that.

▪ If the Bulldogs were physically overmatched against the Spartans, it’ll be the same in every remaining game.

Except UNLV and (maybe) Air Force.

▪ When DeRuyter says the Bulldogs played with high pad levels, stepped with the wrong foot and filled the wrong gaps – and says it again and again – it’s more a reflection of bad coaching than poor talent.

Just sayin’.

▪ The most telling stat wasn’t Tyler Ervin’s 300 rushing yards, it was that a 177-pound back managed 42 carries against this defense.

Forty-two carries? Ervin should have been in traction.

▪ Received a record number of emails and voicemails this week, very few of them calling us an idiot or a jerk.

Which was certainly a nice change.

▪ Giants fans who’ve waited all these months for this four-game series with the Dodgers sure will be confused when they show up at AT&T Park and the River Cats take the field.

▪ Down six games with seven to go, the Giants have a 0.1% chance of reaching the playoffs, according to an ESPN.com formula.

Or roughly the same chance as the 49ers.

▪ As part of their annual rookie hazing, the Astros made Preston Tucker dress up as Bam Bam and Carlos Correa dress up as Wonder Woman.

Matt Duffy? The Pacific Coast MVP had to dress up as … the Giants’ Matt Duffy.

Brilliant.

▪ The Nationals suspended closer Jonathan Papelbon four games for attacking their best player, Bryce Harper, in the dugout.

But not before manager Matt Williams sent Papelbon out to pitch the ninth.

▪ For no particular reason: Jedd Gyorko.

▪ The Lakers’ latest free-agent signing told reporters he’s happy to be called Metta World Peace, the Panda, Panda’s Friend or Ron Artest.

What’s in a name? More than there used to be, apparently.

▪ Even though he has 1.3 million Twitter followers and 540,000 people who “like” him on Facebook, John Calipari says he doesn’t own a computer or know how to turn one on.

“I hired people to do” that Calipari said.

Lesson learned, Hillary.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Marek Warszawski: In one victory, Raiders’ Derek Carr gets double atonement."