Derek Carr: The job’s not done

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Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said last week that he wouldn’t be scoreboard watching in the hours leading up to Sunday night’s game against the Chargers, but he wound up going back on his word.

Carr did pay attention to the Colts losing in Jacksonville and the Steelers winning in Baltimore, which he called “the most stressful thing I’ve ever done” after the Raiders knocked off the Chargers 35-32 in overtime to clinch a playoff berth. They would have also made it with a tie and that outcome seemed like a good one after they blew a 15-point lead in the second half, but the Raiders drove for a game-winning field goal.

The win was the fourth in a row for the Raiders after a 48-9 loss to the Chiefs left them for dead in Week 14 and Carr made it clear after beating the Chargers that they won’t just be happy to be in the playoffs.

“I just have this weird feeling in my heart like the job is not done,” Carr said, via Vic Tafur of TheAthletic.com. “Like my favorite player Kobe [Bryant] said, ‘Job is not done.’ It does feel good, it’s exciting, but I don’t set out to just make the playoffs, although it’s been since 2016 and I didn’t even get to play. It feels cool.”

The Raiders lost to the Bengals at home during the regular season, so they’ll need to find a better plan of attack for their trip to Cincinnati on Saturday but needing a plan at all counts as a major success given where this team was headed a month ago.