Derek Carr is a lucky man.
Not because he was able to come back from a finger injury and lead his team back to a win over the Panthers. But because he’s never experienced any large-scale pain in his life, apparently. Or least to a larger extremity.
Carr’s right pinky finger was turned the wrong way by a snap from Rodney Hudson, but once he was X-rayed and assured there would be no further damage, he returned to the game.
“It was probably some of the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” Carr said, via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com. “I had a lot of questions at first. Once I asked those questions and they gave me answers, there was no doubt in my mind [I was coming back].”
Others had no doubts.
“He has a lot of toughness,” wide receiver Amari Cooper said. “I didn’t doubt that he would come back and play. I asked him if he was going to play. He was like, ‘Duh.’”
He did so wearing a black glove (and unlike his brother David, who wore gloves on both hands late in his career with the Panthers, he won), and he took the rest of his snaps from the shotgun formation.
But he responded from the pain and the Panthers’ 25-unanswered points to bring his team back for their fifth four-quarter comeback of the season and ninth in the last two seasons. He led a pair of scoring drives late to secure the win, throwing it well enough to remove doubt about the following weeks.
