Derek Carr, Amari Cooper fast-track Raiders' rebuild

Lindsay H. Jones | USA TODAY Sports

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ALAMEDA, Calif. — Oakland Raiders players were supposed to be off on the last day of August, but quarterback Derek Carr kept checking his phone, waiting for a chance to go throw.

Finally, at 3 p.m., a text message pinged.

“I’m here,” it read.

Carr walked outside and found rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper waiting in his driveway, and they drove to a nearby neighborhood park. For an hour, the two players who could lead a Raiders’ resurgence ran through three pass patterns in near obscurity, receiving just a few double-takes from families at the park.

Carr picked the three routes out of the Raiders’ base offense because they were three that he and Cooper had missed on the night before, in Oakland’s third preseason game. Among them a deep post pattern down the left side sideline, so they ran that play over and over, Carr making a three-step drop, and Cooper cutting in to weave around an imaginary defensive back before streaking down the sideline.

Throw, catch, repeat.

“We just kept running it over and over again to get the timing down, to make sure I was throwing it early enough to where he could get separation, all of that,” Carr told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.

Twenty days later, in the Raiders’ Week 2 game against the Baltimore Ravens, Oakland called that play early in the first quarter. Cooper blew past the Ravens cornerback, Carr stepped up in the pocket and delivered a pass that hit Cooper in stride for a 68-yard touchdown — the duo’s first score together.

The Raiders went on to the win that game at home, and last week won at Cleveland, with Carr throwing for more than 300 yards and Cooper recording more than 100 receiving yards in both games. Suddenly, thanks to Carr and Cooper, along with second-year running back Latavius Murray and pass rusher Khalil Mack, the Raiders are surging. Oakland heads to 0-3 Chicago on Sunday trying to win a third-consecutive game for the first time since 2011 — which was three head coaches ago.

“I can definitely feel how happy the players are that we won the last two games. It makes me feel how sad they were when they were losing in the past. So it's a really great feeling,” Cooper told USA TODAY Sports. “No one wants to lose, so we're going to keep preparing and try to keep winning.”

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Though the Raiders are being extra cautious to get too high after two wins, it’s hard not to see progress, both with the talent-level on the roster and in the way they’ve won. Carr threw a game-winning touchdown with 26 seconds remaining to beat the Ravens, while safety Charles Woodson sealed another close win against Cleveland with an interception.

It might be too early to declare the Raiders ready to compete for the AFC West title — or even a good team — but those were the types of games recent Raiders teams would have lost.

“I'm cautiously optimistic. It's been difficult for so many years to just watch them play and not be competitive,” former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, now an analyst for Sirius NFL Radio, told USA TODAY Sports. “I think some things are starting to finally come together, they're making better decisions when it comes to personnel, and hopefully (new head coach) Jack (Del Rio) and his staff can make it work. Now the issue is stacking some wins together and building some consistency. You win two, then lose three. What you need is to win three, four, five in a row and all of a sudden you start getting real excited about this football team.”

It’s the Carr-to-Cooper partnership that is most intriguing, because a 24-year-old quarterback and 21-year-old receiver shouldn’t have this sort of connection this soon. Cooper, with 20 catches for 290 yards, is easily out-pacing the rest of his class, despite already drawing coverage from the opponents’ top cornerback, including Cleveland Pro Bowler Joe Haden last week. No other rookie has more than 10 catches yet, and only one other (Indianapolis’ Phillip Dorsett) has reached 100 receiving yards after three weeks.

But this is what Carr imagined when the Raiders drafted Cooper, and why they spent summer afternoons by themselves at the local park.

“It's a blessing to see hard work paying off,” Carr said.

Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones

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