Derek Carr shows off his wheels in win over Broncos

Oct 4, 2022 - 3:02 PM

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While so much of the focus of the Las Vegas Raiders’ 32-23 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday was about the hard running of tailback Josh Jacobs, he wasn’t the only Raiders’ player to make plays with his legs.

Quarterback Derek Carr was on the move as well as he had 40 of Las Vegas’ 212 rushing yards (their most in nearly six years). Carr had two big first-down runs to help seal the win. Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels was pleased how Carr took advantage of opportunities on the ground.

“We’ve talked a lot about the way we’ve been being played, sometimes they try to double cover certain players offensively and he becomes the sixth skill player,” McDaniels said. “And there’s just nobody with a set of eyeballs on him other than the four guys that are all trying to rush, but we’re blocking them. So, he took advantage of some opportunities that I thought were very timely. I don’t know how many of them were on third down, but it had to be a couple, or two, or three of them, where he where he made the right decision. There was a lot of space and I thought he made a good run there at the end of the second quarter in the two-minute drive to get us down there into field goal range. But he’s a good athlete and as much as you don’t want him to run, I think more importantly, you don’t want him to take a bunch of unnecessary hits, and I don’t think he did that today. I thought running was good and he didn’t get hit at the end, which I think is the goal.”

Carr said former Raiders’ coach Jon Gruden used to challenge him to run and he enjoyed taking off in this game.

“It was something that we used to emphasize. [Gruden] would always tell me to run for two a game. Just challenging me, two first downs a game is what he would say,” Carr said. “Now, with the way that we’re playing, if they want to double everybody, I take it upon my shoulders and find a lane and go, just to make it hard for people. It’s definitely something I’m conscious about. It’s definitely something I’m trying to do and get as many yards as I can to put that pressure on the defenses because I think ultimately, it’ll help Davante [Adams]. I think it’ll help Darren [Waller]. It’ll help Hunter [Renfrow] when he’s back. It will help our skill guys to get some normal coverages, but until then, if people want to keep doing it, then I have to be able to try and do that the best that I can.”