Sacked, injured, no matter, Raiders’ Derek Carr looks to finish it out with teammates

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is suffering in the team’s down year.

With five games left, he’s already been sacked a career-high 35 times including three on consecutive plays in Sunday’s 34-17 loss at Baltimore.

According to NFL research, Carr is the second quarterback since 1982 to be sacked on three straight offensive plays. The other? His older brother, David Carr.

On the first sack Sunday, Carr fumbled leading to a Ravens touchdown and limped off the field with an obvious ankle injury.

To no one’s surprise, Carr was back out for the next offensive series.

“He’s got heart,” Raiders tight end Jared Cook said. “How many people would want to be back there with 350-pound dudes coming down at them, or trying to bend them and tear their leg off? And, you’ve got to deal with that all game. For him to be standing back there and delivering the pass that he does and still be successful, like, you’re taking a ‘W’ to me. You’re the man to me. I don’t care what you say.”

Carr said leaving the game was not an option.

“I hurt it pretty bad,” he said. “I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t. Once I got to the sideline, I tried to hurry up and get back in there. I wanted to finish the game with my team. It’s important to me, and I want my teammates to know that I am going to finish a game if I possibly can. I will not take the easy way out.”

Cook said he admired the way Carr grits it out in each game. “He’s been put in a very tough position this year, but he’s handled it with grace and honor, and he’s doing what we need him to do for this team.”

Coach Jon Gruden said he thought about replacing Carr with the game out of reach, but decided not to.

“I was thinking about putting AJ (McCarron) in, but Derek was fine. He wants to finish with his teammates. There’s a certain responsibility I think you have as a coach to let your quarterback, your captain of your team, finish the deal with the rest of his teammates, no matter how it gets.”

Gruden said falling behind put the pressure on his offensive line to protect Carr. “The problem all year was the problem today. When you get in a predictable pass situation, we have to rise up and do better.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2018 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Sacked, injured, no matter, Raiders’ Derek Carr looks to finish it out with teammates."