Derek Carr was sacked four times against the Chargers in the Raiders’ Monday night loss to their division rivals. The first of those sacks was by Joey Bosa who stripped Carr in the process.
Then the next shot Bosa took at Carr came post game.
“We knew once we hit him a few times, he really gets shook,” Bosa said of Carr, adding that Carr “kind of shuts down” when you put pressure on him.
It’s a bit of an odd claim to make considering Carr has been under a lot of pressure all season behind this makeshift offensive line and was averaging over 400 yards passing coming in. Carr seemed perplexed because of how this particular game played out, which saw the Raiders struggle early and then mount a comeback in the third quarter.
“He’s entitled to that opinion and saying those things, but it’s almost like he watched the game in reverse,” Carr said. “The game that I watched, we came out and fought a little bit after they got after us a little bit up front.”
Usually Carr tries to play these things off like they don’t affect him. Even in this case, he started out his response with “I love Joey. And he knows that.” But he ultimately made it clear he took exception to the comments.
“I just thought it was unfortunate that he would even think to say it,” Carr continued. “Maybe he was just trying to get under my skin. Which he did piss me off, so good job for that. But that’s not a bad thing either.”
Yeah, I think it’s safe to say Bosa was very much trying to get under Carr’s’ skin. Carr says it was basically continuation of the trash talking that was going on during the game.
“We’ve gone back and forth,” Carr said of he and Bosa. “He was probably mad because I was talking a lot of crap to him during the game.”
It’s a calculated move by Bosa who seems to be banking on his words damaging Carr’s psyche rather than using those words as fuel for the next time they face off.
“The opinions that I care about are what [head coach] Gru (Jon Gruden) and [offensive coordinator] Oly (Greg Olson) told me when I came in the building yesterday and it will always be that way. Especially what my teammates think about me,” Carr added. “But we’ll see them again.”
Mark your calendars for January 9. The season finale. That’s when these two teams meet again.
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