OAKLAND, CALIF. — Derek Carr completed 23 of 47 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns in the Oakland Raiders 30-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 20. Carr also threw two costly interceptions.
Rookie Amari Cooper caught six passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns for the Raiders (6-8), who could miss the elusive playoffs again.
“(Sunday) we understood we weren’t good enough to beat the Packers,” Oakland coach Jack Del Rio said following the game. “We put ourselves in some positions and had some chances. But they made more plays than we did.”
Aaron Rodgers completed 22 of 39 passes for 204 yards and one TD for the Packers (10-4). It was Rodgers, who played at nearby UC Berkeley, first time playing in Oakland.
Carr appeared to start by off having a bad day. He threw an interception that resulted in a five-yard touchdown run by Green By’s John Kuhn and then on the next possession Damarious Randall returned his pass for a 43-yard score. Both of these miscues were early in the first quarter.
Green Bay had little activity after that and Sebastian Janikowski kicked two field goals in the second quarter. Next it was the Packers’ turn to experience difficulties.
James Starks fumbled the ball on the 21-yard line, which was recovered by Oakland’s Charles Woodson. The Raiders marched 79 yards to score on a 19-yard pass to Amari Cooper from Carr with 20 seconds left to play in the first half. Packers led 14-13 at the half.
Carr’s day began to get better when he tossed his second TD pass, a 26-yarder, to Cooper with 6:28 left to play in the third. Raiders took the lead 20-17, but Aaron Rodgers came back firing on no-huddles, which produced a 30-yard touchdown pass to James Jones.
Mason Crosby kicked a 19-yard field goal and booted another for 33 yards to put the Packers up 30-20 with 4:25 left in the game. The Raiders failed to move the ball up the field for the rest of the game. The loss also gave Oakland a major blow to its playoffs chance.
Del Rio said he was not going to fully put the blame on Carr for his mistakes at the beginning of the game. The coach basically took it upon himself to shoulder the blame.
“(Green Bay) Coach Mike (McCathy) did a better job than Jack Del Rio did with his team,” Del Rio said. “That’s just how it is. It’s a business where you look to put forward your best effort each week and put it on the line. We just didn’t get it done.”
Rodgers did say he hope to play in Oakland again, citing that the team’s uncertainty whether it would stay or move to Los Angeles next season.
“I am not sure what’s going to happen to the Raiders,” Rodgers said. “This could be the last time we play here.”
RAIDERS NOTES:
Amari Cooper is the first rookie with 100 receiving yards and two touchdowns against the Green Bay Packers since Randy Moss in 1998.
Defensive End notched another sack, giving him 15 in one season with two more games remaining on the schedule.
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By Antonio R. Harvey
OBSERVER Staff Writer