For the second time this season, Derek Carr was pulled early from a game that had gotten away from the Raiders. The other time was in week 7 against the Packers when following a Carr interception, and Aaron Rodgers threw his fifth TD pass to go up 42-17.
Clearly, 42-17 is a blowout. But that score happened with 6:28 left in the fourth quarter. Against the Jets on Sunday, Carr’s exit occurred much sooner. A whole quarter sooner.
With 6:32 left in the third quarter, Carr threw a pass over the middle for Tyrell Williams. Linebacker Neville Newitt was sitting in the box, reading Carr’s eyes. He was there to break up the pass for Williams, the ball popped in the air and was intercepted by safety Brian Poole and returned for a touchdown.
The score put the Jets up 34-3, with the Raiders only score coming on their opening drive of the game. Carr would come out for one last shot at putting points on the board. He would pick up one first down and the drive stalled.
The Jets would go three-and-out, and when the Raiders offense returned, it was led by Mike Glennon. Neither team would score in the fourth quarter as they were just riding this one out.
Carr would see 43 snaps (73%) or just under three-quarters of the snaps. After the game, he was asked about being pulled from the game, and he bristled at what he perceived to be misleading intentions behind it, responding, “It was for other reasons than you’re trying to make it seem.”
The most apparent reason behind Carr’s early exit is there’s no sense in risking injury in a five score game. Though, had the offense shown at all in this game that they could move the ball and/or put points on the board, perhaps he would have been given another drive or two to try to crawl back in it.
But Carr was 15 for 27 for 127 yards and an interception while Josh Jacobs had just 34 yards on 10 carries. There was zero indication the offense was suddenly going to show up, and Gruden called the fight.
Had Carr kept trotting out there into the fourth quarter, people would be loudly wondering why, and they’d be right to ask. The question should be how it got to that point in the first place. There has been and will continue to be plenty of answers to that over the coming days.
| Offense | Defense | Special Teams | |||||
| Player | Pos | Num | Pct | Num | Pct | Num | Pct |
| Trent Brown | T | 59 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Kolton Miller | T | 59 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Gabe Jackson | G | 59 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Richie Incognito | G | 59 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Rodney Hudson | C | 59 | 100% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Zay Jones | WR | 53 | 90% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Darren Waller | TE | 53 | 90% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Tyrell Williams | WR | 45 | 76% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Derek Carr | QB | 43 | 73% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Hunter Renfrow | WR | 25 | 42% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Josh Jacobs | RB | 23 | 39% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Jalen Richard | RB | 23 | 39% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Foster Moreau | TE | 19 | 32% | 0 | 0% | 19 | 63% |
| Trevor Davis | WR | 17 | 29% | 0 | 0% | 12 | 40% |
| Mike Glennon | QB | 16 | 27% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| DeAndre Washington | RB | 13 | 22% | 0 | 0% | 7 | 23% |
| Alec Ingold | FB | 9 | 15% | 0 | 0% | 17 | 57% |
| Marcell Ateman | WR | 8 | 14% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Derek Carrier | TE | 7 | 12% | 0 | 0% | 21 | 70% |
| Nicholas Morrow | LB | 0 | 0% | 63 | 100% | 16 | 53% |
| Erik Harris | SS | 0 | 0% | 63 | 100% | 7 | 23% |
| Trayvon Mullen | CB | 0 | 0% | 63 | 100% | 4 | 13% |
| Tahir Whitehead | LB | 0 | 0% | 63 | 100% | 2 | 7% |
| Daryl Worley | CB | 0 | 0% | 59 | 94% | 11 | 37% |
| Maxx Crosby | DE | 0 | 0% | 53 | 84% | 12 | 40% |
| Clelin Ferrell | DE | 0 | 0% | 50 | 79% | 7 | 23% |
| Johnathan Hankins | DT | 0 | 0% | 50 | 79% | 7 | 23% |
| Nevin Lawson | CB | 0 | 0% | 43 | 68% | 9 | 30% |
| P.J. Hall | DT | 0 | 0% | 39 | 62% | 0 | 0% |
| D.J. Swearinger | SS | 0 | 0% | 35 | 56% | 0 | 0% |
| Curtis Riley | FS | 0 | 0% | 28 | 44% | 19 | 63% |
| Maurice Hurst | DT | 0 | 0% | 28 | 44% | 9 | 30% |
| William Compton | LB | 0 | 0% | 20 | 32% | 16 | 53% |
| Josh Mauro | DE | 0 | 0% | 13 | 21% | 7 | 23% |
| Dion Jordan | DE | 0 | 0% | 10 | 16% | 9 | 30% |
| Benson Mayowa | DE | 0 | 0% | 9 | 14% | 2 | 7% |
| Isaiah Johnson | CB | 0 | 0% | 4 | 6% | 17 | 57% |
| Kyle Wilber | LB | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 28 | 93% |
| Keisean Nixon | CB | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 19 | 63% |
| Dallin Leavitt | SS | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 19 | 63% |
| A.J. Cole | P | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 30% |
| Trent Sieg | LS | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 9 | 30% |
| Daniel Carlson | K | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 13% |
| Brandon Parker | T | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 7% |
| Denzelle Good | G | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 2 |
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