Derek Carr accepts all the blame, again

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It’s very easy to publicly accept blame when your contract pays out $70 million guaranteed. Which is what quarterback Derek Carr has been doing this year. Frequently.

“[I]t’s come down to the end and we have not made plays,” Carr said after Monday night’s ugly loss to the Eagles. “We have not done what we needed to do to win the games. That’s pretty much how our year has been. We haven’t done enough. And it’s all in the little details of everyone’s assignment. Like I said, we win and lose as a team, but you can always put it on me.”

Yes, always put it on me. Even though Carr once again mentioned the issue of attention to detail offensively. Which once again doesn’t bode well for offensive coordinator Todd Downing or, in turn, for head coach Jack Del Rio, either.

Consider this: The Raiders started six drives at their own 40 or better last night, and they turned those six drives into a grand total of zero points. They’re the first team in 16 years to accomplish that feat. Congratulations?

Carr was heavily congratulated for his $25 million per year contract, which he signed before the season. In hindsight, he should be congratulated for taking the money when he could get it. If he hadn’t then, would the Raiders be willing to pay it now?

Probably, because they don’t have a clear alternative, unless they’d be willing to pay even more for someone like Kirk Cousins. Besides, it’s possible to turn things around, right?

“You have to work hard when it gets tough,” Carr said. “I can get cliché on you, but I won’t. [Editor’s note: You just did.] When things get tough, a lot of people point fingers. I’ve tried my best every single time to stand up here and be a man and just take it. That’s who I am. That’s how I was raised and I’ll always be that way. When it gets hard, I fight. Nothing is going to change. Hopefully the results change, but I’m going to keep fighting. I’ve been 0-10. I’ve been in sucky situations. I’ve been in hard times, more so in life than football, to be honest with you. We’re going to come out of this and people will just look back on it like, ‘Wow what happened?’ kind of a thing. But there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to work my tail off like I always do, correct the things that I need to correct and move forward.”

The problem is that there’s not really any moving forward until next year. By then, Carr will have a new coordinator, and possibly a new coach. Maybe that will lay the foundation to make things better. Maybe it won’t.

Regardless, the Raiders weren’t good this year. And while it’s easy to take all the blame when you’re still in the guaranteed years of a big-money, market-value deal, the problem with constantly accepting the blame is that, eventually, people will take you up on it.

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