ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Running a hurry-up offense, Derek Carr engineered a breathtaking 75-yard drive in 11 plays over 76 seconds to close out the first half at the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. Carr punctuated the possession with a 3-yard rollout sprint to the right pylon for the touchdown.
It was the kind of play Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden had been hoping for from his franchise quarterback.
"He is a much better athlete than people know about, and we have been trying to encourage him to do more of that," Gruden said. "That's what you need to do -- you need to be a threat to run."
To start the second half, Carr engineered a mind-numbing 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 8 minutes, 49 seconds off the clock, with DeAndre Washington's 5-yard TD run giving the Raiders a two-touchdown lead en route to the 24-17 victory.
Yes, it was the kind of drive Gruden had also been looking for from Carr in their second season together. Diverse. Malleable. Versatile. Hey, no one ever accused Gruden of being easy to please.
Which all leads to the inevitable question(s): With nearly two full seasons in Gruden's offense, what, exactly, do the Raiders have in Carr and, with so many moving parts at wide receiver, offensive line and running back due to injuries, how tough will it be for Gruden to make an accurate and fair assessment of Carr's play this season?
"Not hard," Gruden said Monday. "We've spent a lot of time together. He's done a lot of good things. I know there's a lot of swirling reports out there [of disharmony] but Derek's done a great job. He's done a heck of a job for us."
So there. For now, anyway.
In his first year with Gruden, Carr steadily improved as the season went on. Carr passed for a career-high 4,049 yards while completing a career-best 68.9% of his passes with 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Through 15 games this season, Carr has 3,663 yards passing but an even better 71.1% completion rate, with 20 TDs and eight interceptions, which would be the second-fewest picks of his career.
Oh, and after having a Total QBR of 46.9 last season, Carr's current QBR of 65.5 would be a career high.
And yet ...
Get ready for a new barrage of reports that have Gruden ready to jettison Carr after the season and truly start anew under center next season in Las Vegas. Hey, it would only cost the Raiders a $5 million salary-cap hit next year by cutting Carr, right?
Then again, they would have no one with experience in Gruden's offense to run the show, and Rich Gannon isn't walking through that silver-and-black door.
Keep in mind, as the Raiders wallowed in their four-game losing streak to fall from 6-4 to 6-8, and with the fans turning on Carr for not taking more chances and deep shots, the quarterback stayed on message. That is, he said ad nauseam that he was simply throwing the ball where Gruden wanted him to throw it in the play design.
Carr has yet to have a 300-yard passing game this season. The sixth-year pro has never had a season which he hasn't had at least one 300-yard game.
In the defeat of the Chargers, Carr passed for 291 yards, his third-highest total of the season, and completed a season-high 86.7% of his passes, the second-highest single-game completion rate of his career (90.6% at Denver last season).
And a week after being booed off the field at the Oakland Coliseum, Carr and the Raiders had a decided home-field advantage in Carson, some 12 miles from another old home -- the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
"I was like, 'Guys, we know how our fans get, right? One week they love you and the next week, if we lose, they're still family but they're mad at you,'" Carr said. "But you're always family.
"Lets's keep it real -- we knew a lot of those people were going to be at this game so we wanted to make sure that we came out this week, and really took care of business for them. Because I've got nothing but love. I still went over the Black Hole [last weekend], and even though people were throwing stuff in our tunnel and booing everybody, you know, and yelling at me and all that kind of stuff, it’s always love. I love Raider Nation. There's nothing like it."
Especially when Carr is extending and making plays, not throwing the ball away on fourth down or fumbling through the end zone. Many see Carr's touchdown run at the Chargers as not only a flashback to how daring he was in 2016, before he broke his right ankle, but a glimpse of what Carr can do for Gruden.
Carr sounded a familiar, if complimentary, refrain.
"It was a great call, great design," Carr said. "And when I came around the corner -- obviously, I went through my progression -- I was like, 'Oh, shoot. I can run it in.' So, I just took off and waited [to see] if [Derwin James] came for me, I'd dump it over the top.
"Honestly, I don’t want what went through my mind to get out there and coach to read it. Let's just say the thought was to protect the football and make sure we were in. I had a crazy thought, which maybe I'll share with you another time."
Carr and Gruden will share their own thoughts about each other with each other soon enough.