OAKLAND, Calif. -- Derek Carr has said he wants to be better in coach Jon Gruden’s offense. The Raiders quarterback also said he wanted to wreck the draft for the Raiders by winning some games and not getting that top NFL draft pick.
Check on the first goal.
And maybe checkmate on the second. Because while Carr continued his efficient-if-far-from-explosive season with another interceptionless outing, the Raiders lost another game, this one 40-33 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum.
“I was proud of our quarterback," Gruden said. "It was a shootout of two great young quarterbacks.”
Sure, the Raiders, who opened as 15-point home underdogs, were entertaining, and they were gutty. But they fell to 2-10 on the season, tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the worst record in the NFL after the Arizona Cardinals won their third game of the season earlier in the day at the Green Bay Packers.
It’s all bittersweet for Carr, though, as he would much rather be competing for a playoff spot than be a major player in another Raiders rebuild, his second in his fifth NFL season.
After throwing eight picks in the first five games, Carr ran his INT-less streak to seven games. His last interception, in the end zone from the 1-yard line at the Los Angeles Chargers, was on Oct. 7.
He entered the game having completed a career-best 68.5 percent of his passes. (He completed 63.8 percent of his passes in 2016.) Against the Chiefs, Carr completed 29-of-38 (76.3 percent) for 285 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked three times.
“Obviously, it’s no moral victory but we should play like (we are having fun) no matter what the score is, what our record is," Carr said. "You want it to always look the same. Hopefully, we can continue to grow that and instill that in our young guys.”
In a bigger picture, Carr overtook Rich Gannon for second place on the Raiders’ all-time passing list. Pro Football Hall of Famer Ken Stabler leads with 19,078 yards, while Carr is now at 17,856 yards with four games to go this season and three years remaining on the five-year, $125 million contract extension that he signed in 2018.
"It’s very humbling," Carr said of passing Stabler. "Again, my dad was a Raider fan growing up. Kenny Stabler was his favorite and I got to grow up watching Rich, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. To be able to be up there, it means a lot to me.
"Don’t get it twisted. You guys know me, I just want to win, I hate losing. For those things to be there, in my heart – it means a lot."
Tight end Jared Cook also continued his quietly brilliant season as Carr’s security blanket and as a Pro Bowl candidate with a 24-yard TD catch, an acrobatic hurdle and epic stiff-arm of a Chiefs defender and seven catches for 100 yards.
Three lost fumbles, one by each of the Raiders running backs -- Doug Martin, DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard -- proved costly, especially with Oakland winning the time of possession 30:46 to 29:14.