Lowell Cohn: Raiders have almost all the answers

OAKLAND

The Raiders had things to prove. Lots of things. And they proved most of them against the Buffalo Bills, winning 38-24. Winning easily.

What did they prove?

They proved they could fall behind big time. Fall behind 24-9 early in the third quarter and look dead and young and confused and nothing like a team that entered the game 9-2. The darlings of football.

They proved they could recover from being bad and sad and behind. Just snap out of it like someone coming back from the dead. They outscored the Bills 29-0 to end the game. Just blew away the Bills. And that comeback made you wonder what was wrong in the first place.

They showed once again no game is easy for them. But no deficit is too big for them, either. They are an offense built to explode. In this case, they went to their hurry-up offense to start the second half, you know the two-minute drill. And the Bills couldn’t cope, couldn’t cover Raiders receivers. All the Bills could do was lose.

And while the Raiders defense isn’t great, it has Khalil Mack who’s proved he’s one of the best defensive players in the league. He may be the best.

The Raiders had something else to prove, and this is where Mack came in. The Raiders needed to put a team away. Not wait for a heart-pounding, danger-filled fourth quarter when the game totters in the balance. They needed to put a team away early. Just close out the game. It’s the next step they needed to take.

This they had not been good at, but they were on Sunday. They had surged ahead in the third quarter, took over the game. Pretty much ended it.

And when the Bills sustained a nifty drive in the fourth quarter and entered the red zone and maybe could pull within a touchdown, that’s when Mack became Mack. He sacked quarterback Tyrod Taylor, caused a fumble and recovered the fumble. Do you call that a hat trick in football? And that was the game right there, Mack and the Raiders closing out the Bills. Soaring to 10-2.

Amari Cooper talked about Mack at his locker after the game, Cooper shy but articulate. Here’s what he and I said.

“It’s kind of ridiculous,” Cooper said of Mack. “He’s a dog.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It just means he’s like an animal out there.”

“Is it a good thing?”

“Yeah.”

So, Khalil Mack is a dog in the good sense.

The Raiders still have at least one thing to prove and I’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s consider Derek Carr. Cooper, who could be a writer, spoke about him, too.

“He’s really diligent,” Cooper said. “He’s always studying before the game, always studying the play book. He knows what every receiver has. I’m a really observant person. I come here early and he does, too. And I’ll see him sitting there looking over everything we’re going to call in the game.”

“It’s almost like when you’re in college and you cram for an exam,” I said. Cooper shook his head. I totally had missed the point.

“No. No,” Cooper said. “I wouldn’t call it cramming because he’s really diligent throughout the week, as well. It’s going over it one last time.”

Cut to Carr in the postgame interview room. Such a dazzling personality. So much fun. He talked about life in the huddle, stuff we never hear about.

“We have a lot of talk that goes on,” he said. “A lot of communication goes on in the huddle. Which is awesome. I love to communicate. When the momentum is starting to build, I say, ‘Take a deep breath.’ Everyone’s excited because Khalil made another splash play or something like that, and I just say ‘Take a deep breath’ and make sure we’re assignment-sound, and we don’t forget the little details.”

As he talked, I noticed Carr had two fingers taped together on his right hand - the pinkie he injured last week taped to the ring finger. It looked like black electrical tape. Stuff you find in the garage.

“Do you keep the two fingers taped together all the time or did you just forget to take off the tape after the game?” I asked.

“No, I taped them together so you’d ask,” Carr said. A wise guy.

“What’s the answer?” I said.

“To what?”

“Do you tape them all the time?”

“If I feel like it?”

“Does it hurt if you don’t have them taped together?”

“No pain. I’m off the injury report, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s more of a fashion statement. Are you good with that?”

I said it was an absolutely brilliant answer, the fashion statement. And Derek Carr winked at me. He winked. I had run into his athlete’s code. He hates to admit an injury. Showing his vulnerability. Sorry for being nosy, Derek. Later, he said the tape is precautionary. He took snaps from the shotgun on Sunday - another precaution against pinkie jamming.

OK, here’s the next thing the Raiders must prove. They play the Kansas City Chiefs in KC on Thursday. Short week. High degree of difficulty. The Chiefs beat them in Oakland earlier this season. Made it look easy. Outclassed the Raiders. The Chiefs beat the Raiders in both games last season. Jack Del Rio is 0 for the Chiefs as Raiders head coach.

So, I asked about the Chiefs game.

Del Rio: “It’s Chiefs week, man.” Whatever that means. I asked if he has something to prove, if his team has something to prove.

“I took a Denver team and beat them twice,” he said. “For us, they won the first one here. We look forward to going there and competing. They’re a good football team and we are, too.”

Downplaying the importance of the Chiefs in the Raiders narrative of young team on the make.

Here’s Cooper on the KC game. “I just look at it being another week, another opponent.”

But it’s not just another week, not just another opponent. It’s for supremacy in the dominant AFC West. If the Chiefs win, they hold the tie-breaker against the Raiders. If the Chiefs win, they are a problem the Raiders can’t solve. If the Chiefs win, they have ownage over the Raiders - to use Duane Kuiper’s immensely important term.

Memo to Raiders: No good team likes to be owned. What have you got?

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.