Oakland Raiders rookie quarterback Derek Carr suffers tough debut

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It was a predictably rough start for Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who was harried, beaten and rushed in a tough NFL debut. T

T he rookie struggled at times in a 19-14 loss at the New York Jets. For most of the second half he couldn't connect with his wide receivers against a pass rush that swarmed and collapsed his pocket.

At least it has to get better from here for the Raiders' starter, the only rookie quarterback to start Week 1.

Along with first round-pick Khalil Mack (who had five tackles against the Jets), Carr is expected to be part of yet another rebuilding project in Oakland. He won the starting job over eleven-year NFL veteran Matt Schaub, who has 90 career starts on his resume and was supposed to buy time to allow Carr to develop. But Schaub was so bad in training camp and preseason that the Raiders were left with little choice but to go with the rookie.

Carr had a prolific collegiate career at Fresno State and was a hot name before this past May's NFL Draft, but a first NFL start can always be a risky proposition for any rookie quarterback. This is especially true if the offense is as bad as the Raiders and the pass rush is as good as the Jets.

“No. he was never comfortable,” Jets defensive end Sheldon Richardson said. “There was a lot of delay of game penalties that didn't get called. They stalled him a lot. I think they gave them more points than they actually earned. It is what it is.”

There was also no help from the ground game as the Raiders backfield had just 25 rushing yards on 15 carries, putting all the pressure on the young gunslinger. Sources within the organization say that Carr's greatest weakness is his footwork and the Jets exploited that, consistently targeting the quarterback with dialed up blitz packages.

After the game, Carr made it out to be like he wasn't rattled at all, saying it was “just like any other football game” but clearly it wasn't. His NFL debut was rough although his final stat line read respectably with 20-for-32 for 151 yards and two touchdowns. However, much of that production came late in the game.

With the Raiders down 19-7 late in the fourth quarter, Carr orchestrated a drive that accounted for 63 yards of his 151 passing yards and ended with a 30-yard touchdown pass to a leaping James Jones. His numbers would have looked much different without that drive.

“You have to take away the positives. I could see the pressures, I could see that coverages. I was able to see those things. Now we have to get on the film and I have to do a better job of handling that and making sure that we pick them up,” Carr said. “You can put all that on me. I have to fix those things. From seeing it to knowing where it was coming from, all of those things. Now I just have to find answers for myself to fix those things.”

Richardson, who was the AP's Defensive Rookie of the Year last year, said it was more on what the Jets did to the rookie than anything else that led to this rocky debut for Carr.

“He was rattled from the first snap of the whistle. It was his first game of the NFL,” Richardson said. “He was going to be as rattled as anybody.”

- - - - - - -

Kristian R. Dyer writes for Metro New York and is a contributor to Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KristianRDyer

from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1CGFkAn