Dismal Showing in Loss to Chiefs Quashes Derek Carr’s MVP Candidacy

What you saw on Thursday night, in an ugly, punt-tastic shambles of a game, was an MVP candidate die a slow death, in a slopfest of errant throws, dropped passes and overall offensive putridity.

Derek Carr is a terrific player. One day, he will be the league MVP. Today is not that day.

No, Carr’s ugly performance wasn’t all his fault. In a shocking display of superstar fail, Amari Cooper disappeared like a magician’s assistant under a trapdoor. On one key play late in the game, Cooper seemed to either have lost the football in the lights, or the pass from Carr died in the air like an injured bird. The play typified Oakland’s night.

The Chiefs won, 21-13, and in the process, Carr was scratched from the MVP race, as the Raiders were scratched from the top seed in the AFC.

Carr wasn’t alone in his misery. Oakland’s receivers dropped passes all evening. Their hands suddenly became appendages incapable of catching leather objects. Footballs bounced off hands and chests. It was embarrassing.

But they were not helped, in any way, by Carr. Many of us touted him as an MVP candidate, and he was. Now he’s not. Now Carr and the Raiders fall from a possible top seed to a potential fifth seed.

“It definitely wasn’t the finger,” Carr said after the game.

If you believe that, well, you’re just dumb.

Carr looked as bad as he ever has. It was unfortunate because he …

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