Derek Carr’s fumble opens floodgates for Rodgers’ 6-TD day
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The possibility of the Raiders winning against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers went tumbling through the end zone late in the second quarter.
With Oakland trailing 14-10, Derek Carr scrambled for the pylon from the 3-yard line. Blake Martinez forced a fumble and the ball went through the end zone for a touchback.
Instead of being up 17-14, the Raiders watched as Rodgers threw for one of his six total touchdowns to put Green Bay ahead 21-10 at halftime. Oakland went on to lose 42-24 on Sunday.
“I’ll have to look at it again. I think he’s trying to give a great effort, trying to lay out for the score,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said of Carr. “I think the ball slipped out of his hands. If he would have scored, we would have felt pretty good. But, unfortunately, after that play, the next time we got the ball we were down 28-10. We were going in to make it 17-14 Raiders. That was a big play in the game.”
The fumble gave the Packers (6-1) momentum heading into the locker room. It also opened the floodgates for one of the most eye-popping performances of Rodgers’ storied career.
“Everyone was patting me on the side of the head on the sideline like, ‘You’re just trying to make a play,’ and I understand,” Carr said. “Because the ending of it is a fumble, it’s their ball, like, that sucks. But in that moment, it’s so hard because you’re like right there and you’re playing a tough team where you’re going to need all of the points you can get. It’s so hard not to try. That’s everything I’ve ever been about in my entire life, is to try.
“I’ve got to go with two hands, right? Trying to extend with one hand isn’t smart. That’s stupid. But at the end of the day, it’s really hard to, in that situation, while you’re running, like I’m not thinking about anything else but, ‘Oh, man, I can get it.’ But it sucks, man. It’s my fault. I left my team down on that.”
The Packers got the ball first in the second half, and Rodgers found Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 54-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. That set up a 3-yard rushing touchdown by Rodgers to make it 28-10.
Rodgers became just the second quarterback in NFL history (Mark Rypien, in 1991) to throw for 400-plus yards with five-plus passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and no interceptions.
“He’s one of the best of all time,” Gruden said. “He made a couple of great audibles. He made a couple of great throws. Tough as hell. I mean, we hit him a few times and it didn’t bother him one bit. They’re missing Davante Adams, you know?”
The Green Bay offense torched Oakland (3-3) for 481 total yards, as the Raiders lost their eighth straight against the Packers. It’s Green Bay’s longest current winning streak against one team.
Turnovers aside, the Raiders — who play at Houston next week — did plenty of good things on offense.
Oakland racked up 484 yards of its own. Josh Jacobs entered the day with 430 yards rushing for the second most by a Raiders rookie through five games behind Bo Jackson’s 475 yards in 1987. The 2019 first-round pick finished with 124 yards on 21 carries.
Carr also found comfort in his tight ends, with 15 of his 22 completions going to Darren Waller, Foster Moreau and Derek Carrier. Waller had eight catches for 126 yards and two touchdowns (one from Mike Glennon in the fourth quarter).
“You have to give a lot of credit to our coaching staff,” Carr said. “The way coach Gruden puts a game plan together, puts these guys in confident spots to make plays. I can’t say enough about what (he) has done.”
