Derek Carr says disappointing losses ‘builds character’ and ‘togetherness’

Last week, Las Vegas Raiders interim head coach Rich Bisaccia raised eyebrows with some interesting comments about this rollercoaster season.

“You want to talk about highs and lows of the season … the highs have been pretty good and the lows have been really low,” Bisaccia said, after a home loss to the Washington Football Team. “The lows have been really low, and then professionally, on the grass, the lows have been low. But again, if you’re results-oriented all the time, then you’re just looking at the scoreboard, spending your life up there. So there’s a process to what we’re trying to do. There’s a process to trying to improving every day.”

On Sunday, Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr made some similar comments after a crushing 48-9 defeat at the Kansas City Chiefs. It was the most lopsided game in the 62-year rivalry of the two franchises and it was the Raiders’ fifth loss in the past six games.

“Disappointment,” Carr said, “Definitely disappointed. Most of our guys work really hard and try our very best to put good stuff on tape and win football games. I didn’t expect that outcome. During the game, after the first turnover, second, I didn’t expect that. I felt great what [offensive coordinator Greg Olson] was calling. We would execute to a certain level, but execution is all the way to the whistle and we didn’t do that. Togetherness. It’s all we got. We all know everybody is against us. It’s going to be hard and all that kind of stuff, but that’s what builds character. People would say, ‘take wins over character any day,’ but I was like well ‘you need to have good character to eventually get it right.’ I see good characters where guys are going around to one another and saying, ‘Hey, man, I got your back.’”

Clearly, frustrations are boiling over. Even rookie Divine Deablo had some interesting comments.

These kind of things happen when teams hit rough patches. It is magnified now that the Raiders have collapsed late in the season for a third straight year. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts, whether it’s positively or negatively, in the final four games of the season.