A lot of talk coming into the Las Vegas Raiders’ Week 3 tilt against the Tennessee Titans revolved around Raiders quarterback Derek Carr taking accountability for the first two losses. Carr has shown flashes of putting it all together this season, but has yet to string together two complete halves of football, most notably during the Raiders’ Week 2 collapse against the Arizona Cardinals that saw them relinquish a 20-0 first half lead. However, the Raiders have fallen short yet again, defeated by the Titans in a close 24-22 game, and now Carr and Davante Adams are left wondering what else they must do to climb out of their 0-3 rut.
Derek Carr, who was criticized for completing only 61 percent of his passes ahead of the Titans clash, completed only 26 out of 44 pass attempts, a subpar 59 percent, for 303 yards, and he threw as many touchdowns (two) as interceptions (one) yet again. However, Carr appears to be done pinning the blame on himself.
“You try your best to do it the right way in practice and if you don’t do it right in practice, then you can’t expect it to go right in the game,” Carr said, via The Athletic (subscription required). “[…] Everybody can be optimistic, but if not everybody is doing the work or doing the right things in practice, it doesn’t matter how much we hope for. You have got to earn it. But we are going to stay positive already.”
Meanwhile, Davante Adams knows that he hasn’t put up the best stats this season after a sterling 2021-22 campaign that saw him post the second most receptions in the league with 123 and third-most yards with 1,553. Adams tallied a mere five catches amassing only 36 yards in their most recent loss, and the frustration of not winning could only add to the frustration of not being utilized to his best.
“I am frustrated and angry,” Adams said. “I expect more. It’s not easy to win in this league, we know that … but we expect more and we’ll do it better as we move forward. … We can’t be flat early.”
Davante Adams is too good a player to keep quiet for this long, but Derek Carr and the Raiders should get him more involved in the offense soon. The Raiders will square off against the Denver Broncos on Week 4, and Carr and Adams both need to be locked in and on the same page for the Raiders to finally break their duck to start the season.
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