by Scott Davis Los Angeles Raiders
The Oakland Raiders first round draft pick rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper had the lowest production level of his NFL career last week against the Lions managing only a single catch for 4 yards. Michael Crabtree on the other hand led the teams receievr core. He was thrown to 11 times, caught six passes, and totaled 50 yards.
Additionally, Cooper dropped another 2 passes bring his total for the season to ~ 8 opportunities missed. Cooper is said to have been nursing a quad injury in last weeks game so that could explain the lackluster performance. Or perhaps he was simply covered well by Detroit corner Darius Slay. Either way the Raiders publically stated Cooper should have been more involved.
"I can't speak specifically to it," Del Rio said. "I think they tried to roll up on him a little bit. He ended up having just one ball. He dropped a couple. Obviously, he's a good player for us. We need to find ways to get him more involved."
Carr didn’t offer much else on the subject. In a vanilla response not unlike most QBs who don’t wish to disparage their players publically Carr stated "I'm not sure if you could say, 'It's this thing, or it's that thing,'" Carr said. "For whatever reason, he didn't get the balls, as many as he usually does. We'll go back and see why. I wish I had a better answer for you."
The Raiders struggled early on the passing front. A pass to Crabtree was ruled no catch with the refs ruling he dropped the ball when he came in contact with the ground upon going out of bounds. Sketchy call by the refs.
Del Rio chose not to challenge the call even though he felt is was a poor call. Del Rio went on to say "If we're playing in my backyard, then that's a catch, but I know how the league is going to call it.” "It doesn't matter if I agree with it or not, I know how they're going to call and it would have been a waste of a challenge."
Either way The Raiders are sure to be working on improving those pass numbers as they prepare for their next game against the Titans. My feeling is that we can expect to see better results from the Raiders, Carr, and their core of receivers.
The Oakland Raiders first round draft pick rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper had the lowest production level of his NFL career last week against the Lions managing only a single catch for 4 yards. Michael Crabtree on the other hand led the teams receievr core. He was thrown to 11 times, caught six passes, and totaled 50 yards.
Additionally, Cooper dropped another 2 passes bring his total for the season to ~ 8 opportunities missed. Cooper is said to have been nursing a quad injury in last weeks game so that could explain the lackluster performance. Or perhaps he was simply covered well by Detroit corner Darius Slay. Either way the Raiders publically stated Cooper should have been more involved.
"I can't speak specifically to it," Del Rio said. "I think they tried to roll up on him a little bit. He ended up having just one ball. He dropped a couple. Obviously, he's a good player for us. We need to find ways to get him more involved."
Carr didn’t offer much else on the subject. In a vanilla response not unlike most QBs who don’t wish to disparage their players publically Carr stated "I'm not sure if you could say, 'It's this thing, or it's that thing,'" Carr said. "For whatever reason, he didn't get the balls, as many as he usually does. We'll go back and see why. I wish I had a better answer for you."
The Raiders struggled early on the passing front. A pass to Crabtree was ruled no catch with the refs ruling he dropped the ball when he came in contact with the ground upon going out of bounds. Sketchy call by the refs.
Del Rio chose not to challenge the call even though he felt is was a poor call. Del Rio went on to say "If we're playing in my backyard, then that's a catch, but I know how the league is going to call it.” "It doesn't matter if I agree with it or not, I know how they're going to call and it would have been a waste of a challenge."
Either way The Raiders are sure to be working on improving those pass numbers as they prepare for their next game against the Titans. My feeling is that we can expect to see better results from the Raiders, Carr, and their core of receivers.