Dismal Showing in Loss to Chiefs Quashes Derek Carr's MVP Candidacy

What you saw on Thursday night, in an ugly, punt-tastic shambles of a game, was an MVP candidate die a slow death, in a slopfest of errant throws, dropped passes and overall offensive putridity.

Derek Carr is a terrific player. One day, he will be the league MVP. Today is not that day.

No, Carr's ugly performance wasn't all his fault. In a shocking display of superstar fail, Amari Cooper disappeared like a magician's assistant under a trapdoor. On one key play late in the game, Cooper seemed to either have lost the football in the lights, or the pass from Carr died in the air like an injured bird. The play typified Oakland's night.

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

The Chiefs won, 21-13, and in the process, Carr was scratched from the MVP race, as the Raiders were scratched from the top seed in the AFC.

Carr wasn't alone in his misery. Oakland's receivers dropped passes all evening. Their hands suddenly became appendages incapable of catching leather objects. Footballs bounced off hands and chests. It was embarrassing.

But they were not helped, in any way, by Carr. Many of us touted him as an MVP candidate, and he was. Now he's not. Now Carr and the Raiders fall from a possible top seed to a potential fifth seed.

"It definitely wasn't the finger," Carr said after the game.

If you believe that, well, you're just dumb.

Carr looked as bad as he ever has. It was unfortunate because he did so before a national televised audience, many of whom didn't know much about Carr or the Raiders. 

Carr was 17-of-41 for 117 yards. Read that real quick again. He threw for 117 yards. 

Carr averaged 2.85 yards per pass attempt. NBC reported that yards-per-play average is the second-lowest in the history of football. Jesse Palmer has the distinct honor of holding the lowest at 2.6, set when he quarterbacked the Giants. So Carr barely beat out The Bachelor dude. 

Carr has played with injured fingers before, but this injured finger was clearly bothering him. That had to be the explanation. He hasn't played this poorly since he was a rookie.

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The Raiders will be back. They are too talented and well-coached. Bones heal. Fingers on throwing hands heal. Carr will be back too. Still, this was one of the worst losses for this incarnation of the Raiders.

Oakland should have won this game. The Raiders defense was actually fairly stout, forcing three Kansas City turnovers. If Carr could have hit the broadside of a Galaxy-class starship, this would have been a much different game.

But it wasn't. Give Kansas City credit.

The truth, however, is Carr lost this game as much as the Chiefs won it.

In many ways, Carr can learn from the quarterback he played against. Alex Smith was far from perfect, but he was solid, and sometimes solid is all you need. In fact, Smith's nickname should be Just Good Enough.

Smith's ride was different. Remember, it was after the October meeting between these teams, when the Chiefs won by 16 points, that Jack Del Rio was asked about Smith. 

"Good football player, (a) little underrated," Del Rio said of Smith then. "If he’s got to rely on throwing the ball, it’s really not his strong suit, but if you allow them to run the ball, do some of their gimmicky things, then he comes to life. That’s what they were able to do today."

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

Smith was not happy about that remark. At all. According to one Chiefs offensive player, Smith was determined to show Del Rio there was nothing gimmicky about any part of his game the next time the two teams met.

Smith started the game hot and helped to give the Chiefs a first-half lead. They'd never look back.

As for Carr, he took all of his snaps from the shotgun, another sign his finger was bothering him, despite his protestations that it wasn't.

This wasn't the Carr we're used to seeing.

He'll be back. Carr's team will too.

But for now, the MVP race has narrowed, and Tom Brady remains the leader.

And Carr is eliminated from it.