My very pregnant wife and I were sitting on the couch watching a cooking show, when she saw a new post hit Facebook that got me very excited. The announcement of the Chalk Talk featuring the Carr brothers, the only one, It was going to happen at the Double Tree Hotel in Modesto, CA where we live. We instantly checked the event and prices. There were 50 VIP tickets available for about 300 dollars each. We are in no shape to afford those, so we opted for standard tickets. The VIPs got a bag of signed swag and got to meet the brothers.
Fast forward to Friday March 24, 2017 about four pm. I am leaving my job about 15 miles north on highway 99 having worked through my lunch so I can pick up my wife and stand in line. When we get to the Double Tree after grabbing a small bite to eat, it is about 530 pm and there is a line down the street of 500 Raider fans. After an excruciating hour wait and some truly epic stupidity on behalf of the planners regarding the lines to get in and to get beer, my wife and I take a seat near the back. The conference area is packed with at least 750 Raider fans.
The event had three stages to it. First was an interview of sorts by a radio host from Fresno who seemed to be on good terms with the Carr's. It also helped that he was a life long Raider fan. After that was the breakdown of five plays, followed by an audience question and answer period. For the sake of this blog post I am going to focus on the film breakdown and then show my tweets from the event during the question and answer. There were a couple cool moments.
Film Breakdown
Play one during the film breakdown was the late touchdown to Crabtree against the Ravens. To recall, the Raiders were down 6 with 2:24 left in the game and the offense is on the Ravens' 25 yard line. From here I will summarize what Derek had to say on the play based on my quickly taken notes:
Derek: "You can see here on this play we have Crabtree lined up on the top of the screen. You can tell this corner is squatting on the play which is what good cornerbacks like to do."
David: "Bad cornerbacks do that too. They are guessing and going off what they see on tape..."
Derek: (Laughs) "The Ravens also have a good pass rush so we were keeping a tight end to chip and running Crabtree on a double move, then bam."
David: "When did you know you were going to Crab?"
Derek: "There was a timeout before this play and we knew the corner was sitting on the short route. So when they came out in a cover two type look I got the feel it was cover 4. As soon as the safety does not bolt at the snap to get back over the top of Crab, I knew it was cover 4 and Crab would be one v one. Do you see his feet? His feet are flat, knew Crab was going to win."
Play two was from the game in San Diego, our ninth regular season home game. Trust me, both Carr brothers made their fair share of jokes on this subject, especially David who then proceeded to take a pot shot at Colt fans for also being really quiet. On this play it is early in the game and the Raiders have the ball on the Charger 47. This play highlights Derek's arm strength and anticipation, because Melvin Ingram gets free on a stunt and pressures Derek right up the middle, who then throws a first down on 3rd and 12 to Cooper who is running a 15 yard comeback.
Derek: "San Diego does crazy stuff. You see this cornerback playing off and I know I have a shot to go to Amari Cooper."
David: "There is always one guy on the defense who is screwing it all up and is tipping the defense to the quarterback. San Diego does some weird things to help cover up it's issues."
Derek: "And I am not telling you who it is on this play! (laughs). I have a binder at home where I take notes on every team and every player. On this play Melvin Ingram is going to come up the middle, yeah he's really good you may have heard of him, and he is going to get a hand in my face. If Cooper does not run the exact route at the exact perfect timing we all look bad. Here he is running a 15-18 yard comeback."
David: "He (Derek) and ARod are the only two guys who anticipate on this level to make this throw. Some guys who have a big arm and most quarterbacks in the draft have good enough arms, will wait until a player gets through his break then try to fire it in before the defender gets there. You can see the ball is out and Amari just broke his route. Dude the anticipation is crazy."
Derek: "Coop ran the right route at the right depth, I just through it to where he was supposed to go. But we have to practice this a thousand times to make this happen."
This play was actually funny to watch them break down. The first two were great examples of pure nerd-dom, but this was more of a joke. The play happens in the second quarter against the Saints where Carr scrambles for a first and does a front flip in the air after diving over a low tackle.
David: "I have always said that Derek has a little Bruce Wayne to his game. He loves Batman and sometimes you have to do something crazy to get everyone going."
Derek: "Yeah you've always told me to play like Bruce Wayne, put that cape on. We needed a spark even with 11 minutes left in the second quarter. They will bring the blitz and out offensive line because it is great still pick it up. I am going to scramble to the sideline and yes I know now Crabtree was open on the play. Trust me he let me know was open. If you look to the left that is the old head coach Dennis Allen. (Loud boos). Hey hey, he drafted me, let me play I have respect that guy. It was a tough spot for him and for everyone. So I threw the first down signal in his face."
On to game four. This was the Buccaneer game and the Raiders were on the Tampa Bay 37. This play has the Raiders in a 3 by 2 empty formation from the shotgun. Meaning there are three receivers to the strong side of the formation and two to the backside with nobody next to Carr in the shotgun. There was also no tight end in to block.
Derek: "So in this game, the refs were making stuff up, someone on ESPN or NFLN can tell me I am wrong and correct me if they want to try." Just like the Raven game, the cornerback was squatting on routes all day and they were again in cover 4. So I gave a small and signal and we changed to a double move."
David: "The cornerback is too interested in Amari Cooper and there are only so many routes you can run on the backside of a play with an empty backfield. So it is kinda crazy to run a double move here. Usually when you run a double move it is off of play action or with max protection. The Raiders are just one a few teams that do this. It's like 2% of double moves are done in this spot. So Coop gives the safety what he wants to see after beating the cornerback who squatted on the first move, and the safety was cheating inside so that slight move inside then speed goes deep."
Derek: "I know everyone likes to cheer for me and I see those number 4 jerseys everywhere, but on this play your favorite players should be those five big guys. Teams just don't run double moves from empty sets and we can do it because those guys are monsters."
Keeping it in the NFC South, the next play was the Clive Walford touchdown against the Panthers with Klein in coverage.
Derek: "So anytime a team has a backup in the game we are going to target that guy and try to create favorable matchups. Kuechley was out and he is one of the best in the NFL, so we went with the matchup and got Clive on his replacement. Here Crab is running a post from the outside of this bunch and the top man defender has to pick one. Either he stays inside to cover the middle of the field or he cheats to take away Crab. I almost threw it to Crab but when I saw that safety try to bait me to throw it, you can see my arm pull it back, I knew to throw it to Clive. (Goes on to credit the play of both the safety and the linebacker in coverage).
David: "This is a tough throw too because about midway you can see he has to slightly change his arm trajectory to get that ball over Clive's back shoulder because the linebacker did such a good job covering the inside."
The final play was the incredible threading of the needle to Crabtree against the Chiefs.
Derek: "Kansas City has really good rushers, they also have really good defensive backs. Like Berry he is the best in the game and he is going to look to try to kill Crab on this play. So we kept Clive our tight end to help against Hali."
David: "As a quarterback you always pray when that happens." (laughs)
Derek: We are gonna do play action and Coop is going all the way across the formation, Seth is there to pull Berry away. All of this is designed to clear out space for Crab to work at the goal line. I mean look at that catch, Berry is trying to kill him and that's scary Berry is a big dude."
David: "Peyton two years ago, well Peyton 50 years ago wouldn't have tried that throw."
Derek: "I just want to say thank you to the 49ers for letting Crabtree go, its great having two number ones."
Derek Carr was just asked about his leg. Got up and danced a jig. Kinda not really. #raiders
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017
On contract extension:
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017
Carr says his agent tim is working hard they are close. He won't hold out wants to be #raiders for life.
Woman with breast cancer and surgery next Friday just asked Derek to say a prayer for her. They will meet after event to do that #raiders
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017
Derek just said best player in draft is myles Garrett mentioned lots of good safeties in this draft. Only position he brought up #raiders
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017
Derek says OC todd downing will want him to run the show on the field as an extention of him #raiders
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017
Derek blames OL being so good he hasn't had to run one in. His first TD celebration on a td run will be Michael Jackson #raiders
— Rory Anderson (@holistic_pickle) March 25, 2017