Raiders roll by Jets behind Carr’s 4 TDs

The 4-3 Raiders cracked 400 total yards for the third time in their last five games with a solid 34-20 win over the New York Jets last weekend, putting them squarely in wild card contention in the AFC.

The impressive component was how the Raiders accomplished their second straight victory.

Oakland Raiders quarterback and 2014 2nd-round pick Derek Carr is the absolute steal of the 2014 NFL Draft. Or will that pass defense step up and shut him down the same way they shut down Philip Rivers and the league’s top ranked passing offense last week? He overthrew Brandon Marshall on one drive for a three-and-out; missed Decker on the next possession to force a punt, and then hung a deep ball in the air too long, allowing a 39-year-old Charles Woodson to roam over from his safety position for an interception. “We didn’t do anything well”, said Jets head coach Todd Bowles during his post-game press conference. It’s really kind of taking a dig at this team and what we’ve accomplished.

“We didn’t play good, we didn’t tackle, we didn’t stop anybody, we didn’t do anything right”, Bowles said when asked to assess his defensive struggles.

“I guarantee you if you took a poll from our team”, Carr explained, “the top 5 just favorite teammates to be around…”

“We didn’t play well and I’ll say that a million times”, Bowles said. But that’s deceptive. Their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, was out a month with a knee injury. I’m also expecting big things from wide receiver M. Crabtree.

After the Steelers comes a home game in Oakland against the very decent (and winning) Minnesota Vikings. But after that? The meat gets a lot easier to chew for the Raiders. Even still, Glennon would complete just under 60% of his passes (59.4%) while throwing 19 touchdowns to just 9 interceptions.

“Michael has been a real pro”, coach Jack Del Rio said. “We’ll continue to push for that”.

For now, after so many autumns of gloom, it’s just fun to see the Raiders and their followers wallow in Black Hole bliss. Three of the first four times Ivory carried the ball, the Raiders knocked him down on his side of the line of scrimmage. This forced Hayden to run around the edge of the field back to the bench. “He finished the game…” Overall, a good day for the Oakland D.

Murray broke two tackles on a first-quarter, 26-yard run that helped set up the Raiders’ first touchdown, a short fade from Carr to Holmes.

“Can you be overconfident?” Before trying to keep their playoff hopes alive during that brutal stretch in their schedule, the Chiefs need to stock up on a win over a weak opponent Sunday. It’s a blow. We gotta bounce back, we’ve got guys in this locker room that’s mature enough.

“I was like, “OK, they played it well”. Oakland already has as many wins this season as it recorded all of last season.

Overall, I expected much more from Fitzpatrick considering he’s a veteran and should have known better in a situation that could have been avoided.

No doubt. But lest you forget, we have been fooled too often by the Raiders during the team’s 12-year postseason drought.

It wasn’t a great day for the Jets’ defense, which has been heralded this season particularly for their ability to control the run game.