MINNEAPOLIS — Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr had the big-play connection with Cooper, but nearly had another one with Seth Roberts.

Carr’s final pass of the night came when he pump faked as Roberts executed a double move and got free down the sideline. The timing may have been just a tiny tick off and Carr’s pass hit off his hands.

Carr was visibly frustrated with Roberts and television cameras caught him yelling, “Catch the ball!” in Roberts’ direction.

“I really wanted to see him make that one,” Carr said. “We’ll go back and I’ll throw a couple of those to him and practice, make sure we get the timing exactly right. Would we have loved to have it? Yes, of course. I was upset. He was upset. Everyone was. We want those big plays. But he ran a great route and we’ll fix the rest.”

Carr said he went and talked with Roberts after the play to let him know about what he did well, even if the drop was the noticeable part.

“I told him, ‘Hey man, you ran a great route’,” Carr said. “I didn’t want to beat a dead horse. He ran a great route on a first-round corner. I wanted to make sure he knew that first. I wanted to make sure he had the confidence to know, you ran a double move route and that was amazing. “

Maybe that pep talk helped because Roberts later made a nice catch and run for a 39-yard gain on a pass from Christian Ponder.

* Ponder’s return to Minnesota came with the boos he was expecting, although maybe not as hearty as they could have otherwise been.

Ponder took the field shortly after the one hour, five minute weather delay and Vikings fans were probably still smarting over an interception thrown by Shaun Hill.

But they did give Ponder, their former first round pick, a bit of a welcome.

“I was prepared for it so it didn’t really affect me,” Ponder said. “It made it kind of fun coming back. It was good to see a lot of the guys, a lot of the staff and a lot of the players and reconnect with them. But you know it was expected, so I got a little chuckle out of it.”

Ponder joked earlier this week that he might take a bow when the boos came in, but that didn’t happen.

“It kind of happened late when I was running onto the field, so I probably wimped out,” Ponder said.

Ponder’s night wasn’t as crisp as his debut last week. He was 7 of 11 for 69, which isn’t bad. But he was sacked on a fourth-down play in which he took too long to decide if he was going to throw or run.

He may have been a little gun shy after throwing two near interceptions that went right into the hands of defensive ends.

“There were some good things and some things that I can improve upon,” Ponder said, “but it was good to be out there.”

* Coach Jack Del Rio is plenty familiar with weather delays after spending eight years coaching in Jacksonville, so he refused to allow his team to be bothered by Saturday night’s lightning.

“We expected it and talked about it as a team today and weren’t going to let that be an issue,” Del Rio said.

Carr said the way the team approached the conditions speaks about how Del Rio has changed the team.

“To us, that’s kind of the culture and the mentality that Del Rio has brought,” Carr said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on, whether it’s weather, whether it’s in-house, whether it’s outside stuff. It should not matter. Just put the ball down and play. I thought we did a good job of handling that.”

* Wide receiver Andre Holmes, linebacker Sio Moore, running back Roy Helu Jr., tight end Clive Walford and fullback Jamize Olawale did not suit up. All have been missing from recent practices.