If Sunday’s game against the Browns was any indication, Jon Gruden might want to separate his Pro Bowl center and his Pro Bowl quarterback as early and often as possible when they face the Chargers in a few days.
Derek Carr might be perfectly comfortable taking snaps under center, but this week he was nearly unstoppable operating out of shotgun and his Beast in the backfield was much the same..
First, let’s talk about Lynch, who ran for 130 yards on 20 carries against a stout Cleveland defense. A productive day for sure, but on carries when Carr was under center, Lynch ran for just 16 yards on nine carries. Out of shotgun, the running lanes were occasionally wide enough that Lynch could have comfortably fit himself and a half dozen of his cousins through with no problem. Lynch ran for 114 yards on nine carries when standing next to Carr and the almost long run that was blown dead early came out of shotgun, as well.
Interestingly, Lynch is averaging almost 10 yards per carry running out of shotgun this season.
Marshawn Lynch is averaging 9.4 yards per carry on shotgun runs this season. Best among all RBs. League average is 4.4 yards. #Raiders
— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) October 1, 2018
As for Carr, he threw for 437 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday, but 296 of those yards and three of the touchdowns came out of shotgun. Remarkably, Carr was just 11-25 for 141 yards under center with one touchdown and one interception.
The one interception out of shotgun was hardly an egregious error on Carr’s part. The pass actually hit Jared Cook in the hands, but the timing was slightly off and the ball bounced off Cook’s hands and into the defender’s.
Carr operated almost exclusively out of shotgun in college so it’s no secret that he’s very comfortable in those situations.
Just a thought, but it’s possible that some of the Raiders’ troubles in the red zone this year might have something to do with how they’ve struggled to run block (and throw the ball at times) from under center.
Or maybe it’s just the play calling down when they get close to the endzone…
Just give the ball to Marshawn at the goalline, Jon!
twitter: @raidersbeat
It’s always hard to know what the problem is with these types of numbers. Obviously, if its working, then they should do it. But, its hard know if its play calling, personnel, or bad match ups causing the discrepancy. But to support your thought, in 2016 when Carr’s finger was broken he was an MVP candidate working almost exclusively from shotgun.