The Oakland Raiders were dealt their fifth loss of the season on Sunday. Here are three takeaways from their Week 8 game against the Buffalo Bills.
After waiting a decade-and-a-half for a winning franchise, the Oakland Raiders treated their fans to a 12-4 campaign in 2016. They likely won’t be treating them to back-to-back winning seasons if the first half of 2017 is any indication.
A 2-0 start was followed by four-straight losses before Oakland finally got a much needed win on Thursday Night Football in Week 7. That win against the Kansas City Chiefs gave them plenty of confidence, and on top of that, they had extra time to prepare for their next game, which was against the Buffalo Bills.
Then the game started, and it seemed like all that confidence and extra prep-time was wasted. Oakland got a 7-0 lead, but from there looked flat and out of rhythm. The Bills cruised to a 34-14 victory, and here are three takeaways from the Week 8 game for the once-promising Raiders who now sit at an unimpressive 3-5.
3. Carr may not be healthy
Quarterback Derek Carr suffered a transverse process fracture in their first game in October. While he missed just one game, there’s no reason to believe that he was 100 percent healthy when he returned. In his first game back he looked nothing like himself, but then in Week 7 he did. In that one, Carr threw three touchdown passes and had no turnovers.
This week though, he looked like he may not have been right. Carr wasn’t taking his normal shots downfield, but had a day of throwing a lot of underneath stuff. He finished with 313 yards, but it took 49 pass attempts to get there and again he had two interceptions and just one touchdown. This team isn’t good enough to win when he plays like he did — too much is on his shoulders.