OAKLAND#, Calif. — # – He doesn’t know. That’s what I’m thinking as Indianapolis Colts outside linebacker Trent Cole is talking quietly, respectfully, hopefully about Oakland quarterback Derek Carr.

The game has just ended, this 33-25 loss Saturday to the Raiders that finished off the Colts’ faint postseason hopes. Carr, having an MVP-type season in his third year, was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter and later driven away from the field in a golf cart, taken somewhere deep inside Oakland-Alameda County Stadium# Coliseum#.

To a room with an X-ray machine.

The results of those X-rays are in, and they’re not good, and Trent Cole doesn’t know. And I’m not sure if I should be the one to tell him.

See, it was Trent Cole who hit Derek Carr on the play.

“There was no intent,” Cole was telling me, and I’m interrupting him, stopping him from talking, because even though I need quotes for my story, what I need more than that is to assure Cole that nobody — – certainly nobody standing in front of him at this moment — – is accusing him of trying to hurt Carr.

“There was no ….” he says, and again I’m interrupting him, saying he doesn’t need to say that.

Cole is still wearing his uniform, just now starting to take off his cleats and his No. 58 jersey. It hasn’t been 30 minutes since the game ended. And it hasn’t been five minutes since the news broke about the severity of Derek Carr’s injury.

And Trent Cole, he doesn’t know. Neither does his coach.

He’s not. And they don’t know.

Down the hall in the Colts’ locker room, a quiet place where players are exchanging hugs, not words, Cole is saying that he was just trying to make a play, “and I hope he’s OK.”

The play almost swung the game the Colts’ way. It was already trying to head in that direction, the Colts rallying furiously from a 33-7 deficit, but the gap looked too large to overcome unless something crazy happened.

And here it was. Something crazy. Second-and-18 at the Oakland 48, Derek Carr dropping back, Trent Cole beating Raiders left tackle Donald Penn around the corner and going to the ground and crawling toward Carr and diving at him, grabbing him near the waist and sliding down toward his ankle. Now Cole is rolling, doing the only thing he can to finish off the sack, rolling like an alligator and spinning Carr into the turf.

Something happens to Carr’s right leg. It is trapped underneath Cole, the cleats lashing his foot to the turf while his leg continues to turn, turn, turn. This is the first time the Colts have touched Carr all day, and Cole pops up and walks toward the Colts’ sideline.

Behind him, Carr is on the ground and he is telling those around him – — including Colts’ defensive tackle Henry Anderson — – “It’s broken, it’s broken.”

Trent Cole doesn’t hear. He doesn’t know. He starts to get an inkling soon enough, what with Raiders backup QB Matt McGloin entering the game and mostly going nowhere as the Colts' rally gets cruel-close before falling short.

It’s 30 minutes after the game has ended and Derek Carr is trending on Twitter and the Colts’ locker room is quiet and players aren’t on their cell# cell#phones and Cole doesn’t know.

“Things happen, and it sucks that it happened,” Cole says of Carr having to leave the game. “He loves to play football just like I love to play football. I hope he’s OK, man. I really do.”

I decide to tell him.

His fibula, I tell Cole. It’s broken.

Cole is looking at me and now he’s looking away. This has been a bad day all around, a loss but worse than that, a loss that has ended the Colts’ playoff hopes and maybe ended a lot more than that. Two years ago, the Colts reached the AFC title game and a flood of veterans, all of them searching for their first Super Bowl ring, joined the Colts as free agents. Frank Gore. Andre Johnson. Todd Herremans. Kendall Langford.

Trent Cole.

The Super Bowl didn’t happen in 2015. It won’t happen this season. Johnson is gone. Herremans#, # too. Cole would have been gone after last season, but he accepted a pay cut to stay. It’s possible he won’t be back next season. It’s possible his days with the Colts will end in seven days, after their 2016 finale against Jacksonville. Maybe Cole’s career ends as well. He’s 34. He’s coming off a back injury. He has played just six games. This was his second sack.

“There was no intent,” Cole says softly, looking down, not responding as I pat his shoulder and tell him goodbye.

I’m walking away when I hear him again, his tired voice carrying in a quiet locker room.

“There was no intent,” he says.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

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