Raiders week 9 Pro Football Focus grades: Derek Carr star keeps rising

The Raiders leave Pittsburgh a loser after a hard fought 38-35 game that came right down to the end. As they usually do, Pro Football Focus put out their grades for the week. Here are a few of the more notable ones:

Offense

Derek Carr's +8.2 passing grade was his best of the year so far and was also the week's highest by any QB.

Rodney Hudson (+3.1), Jackson (+2.5), and Howard (+1.8) all earned positive grades as run blockers.

Hudson was rated the best player at the center position for week nine with a +2.9 overall grade.

Performances like this justify the big money the Raiders have given Hudson.

Tony Bergstrom filled in at center when Hudson left with an injury. Bergstrom was in for 16 snaps, all in pass protection, and gave up a pair of hurries.

Despite 10 total pressures charged to the offensive line this week, they've allowed the second-fewest in the league (55 on 317 pass plays. Only Dallas has given up fewer (54 on 290).

Two more drops for Amari Cooper have him with the league's second-highest total (8) behind Tampa Bay's Mike Evans (10) who jumped into the lead by dropping six passes Sunday.

Lee Smith was a top performer with a +2.8 grade for the game.

Defense

Rookie DL Mario Edwards Jr posted his best grade of the season so far (+4.0 overall) and his +5.1 run defense grade on the year is third-best out of 34 rookie interior defenders behind Henry Anderson (+10.2) and Leonard Williams (+6.1).

Khalil Mack returned a grade of +5.6 on the day and was rated as the best edge rusher along with Jets Calvin Pace (+4.1)

So continues the excellent year of Mack. He had four hurries on the day, but that really doesn't tell the story of how much trouble the Steelers had with him.

The touchdown charged to DJ Hayden's coverage was his fifth of the year. Only four of 110 qualifying cornerbacks have allowed more.

The defense had a total of nine missed tackles. Eight of those were by defensive backs.

DJ Hayden and David Amerson combined to allow 20 of 29 targets to be completed for 310 yards. Of those, 16 completions and 278 yards went to Antonio Brown.

Hayden had one of the worst grades for the week at the cornerback position with a -6.0 grade.

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