Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr knows the NFL is ‘week-to-week’ league

In a short week, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr knows the team has to quickly wash away the smell of Sunday’s 48-9 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs — the Raiders’ fifth loss in the past six games — before facing the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.

Carr addressed that challenge while talking with the media on Tuesday. Here are some highlights from his press conference:

On knowing the NFL is week-to-week and that the 6-7 Raiders are still alive in the AFC:

“Yeah, it’s nuts right? It is a week-to-week game. As I know, if anyone is just a fan of mine, it’s a week-to-week league that’s for sure because one day they love you and the next they hate you. They blame you for everything and then they praise you for stuff that really that wasn’t even me. If anyone knows that, I know that. But letting our team know that, to keep that mindset.

“Look, it doesn’t matter if we win by a whole bunch of points or if we lose by a whole bunch of points, you win by a close game or lose by a close game, you always move on to the next game. I know it’s hard for people to comprehend, but that’s why we do what we do. That’s why we’re in the positions that we’re in because we have to compartmentalize a win or a loss, flush it and move on to the next thing. I think that for us to know that we’re still right there and we have four AFC teams that we play, two in the division. It’s not going to be easy, but you’re telling me that we have a chance. The way that we’ve come to work is we do have a chance and that’s a fact. But we have to win football games, that’s all that matters.”

On turnovers dooming Las Vegas in Kansas City:

“Yeah, I mean the No. 1 thing was the turnovers. We had good plays. We had some explosive plays. We had some really good looks at a lot of things. A couple other chances at some explosives early in the game. But again, like we talked about it after the game, their rush did a good job on a couple of those.

“Two weeks ago, the Washington game, we talked about situations, third down. We got a little bit better at that. I think in the Dallas game we had like 500 yards, so the main thing right now is that we’re too inconsistent. The main thing is that we’re too much of this (up and down) instead of just doing the same thing right over and over again, and that’s as a whole. We got to be better as a whole, and if we can be consistent, we’ve shown that we can put up a lot of points and put up a lot of yards against some really good teams.”

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

On facing Myles Garret and Cleveland’s tough front after a struggle against the Chiefs’ defensive line:

“They’re a really good front. We know. I’ve played against a lot of these players, maybe not all at once, but I’ve played against these players and they’re all super talented. Some of the best in the whole NFL, in the whole world. We’ll have our work cut out for us. Again, this is the NFL, the games are won in the trenches. It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to be great competition and a great challenge for us as an offense to see if not only we can move the ball … I think we can move the ball, but not saying that we can just move it on anybody. I feel like we’ve done that well, but we got to score points, and to do that against this defense it’s going to take all 11 because these guys are really good. Not just on the D-Line, they’re really good everywhere.”

On dealing with frustration:

“Yeah, I think frustration is one of those things that … I’ve said it a whole bunch of times, but Coach Bisaccia has been great as a leader and as a coach. He teaches you that when you’re frustrated, frustration means that you don’t think you can fix the problem. It’s OK to be disappointed, it’s OK to be angry, it’s OK to be mad at something, but you got to be able to move on, and I believe that. So, maybe I’ve used the word in the past out of context because I believe we can always fix it.

“With every day that I wake up, when I get to the building and when I put all this work in, I’m believing that I’m part of the solution, just like a lot of our guys are when they come in and they’re doing the right things over and over again. You want to be a part of the solution. So, I agree with Coach when he says that and he’s helped me change the way I think on that word and hopefully help me get it out of my vocabulary because usually when you use that word, you’re just describing an emotion, but it really means you don’t think you can change. To me, I’m trying to be someone that’s always a part of the change and always being a problem solver and not a problem creator.”

What are your thoughts Carr’s latest comments?