After Monday night’s game between the Raiders and Chargers, L.A. defensive end Joey Bosa had some pointed things to say about the connection between Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr getting hit and getting “shook.” On Wednesday, Carr admitted that Bosa’s words left a mark.
“I just thought it was unfortunate that he’d even think to say it,” Carr told reporters. “Maybe he was just trying to get under my skin. Which he did piss me off. So good job for that.”
Said Bosa on Monday night, “We knew once we hit him a few times, he really gets shook. “And you saw on [Christian Covington’s] sack, he was pretty much curling into a ball before we even got back there. Great dude, great player . . . but we know once you get pressure on him, he kind of shuts down.”
Carr disagreed with that assessment. “He was probably mad because I was talking a lot of crap to him during the game,” Carr said. “He’s entitled to that opinion and saying those things. It’s almost like he watched the game in reverse. The game that I watched, we came out and fought after they got after us a little bit up front. . . . We’ll see them again. And he’s entitled to say that. He’s a great player, great dude. I just don’t think he watched the game in the same order I did.”
As to the claim that Carr “curled into a ball,” the reality is that he was protecting the ball. At a time when too many quarterbacks don’t know when to concede a play gone haywire, Carr did the right thing by waving the white flag and living to fight another day.
Regardless, the rematch comes in little more than three months, on the final Sunday of the season. It’s safe to say that Bosa’s words and Carr’s response will resurface then.
