Amari Cooper had a good-day, bad-day experience in the victory over the Titans.
In this past Sunday’s season opener, the Raiders’ wide receiver had five catches for 62 yards and a touchdown. But the former first-round pick – who caught 72 balls as a rookie in 2015 and 83 in 2016 – also had several drops, and quarterback Derek Carr was just 5-of-13 when he tried to connect with Cooper.
In one early series, Carr went to Cooper three straight times near the goal line, but Cooper was unable to hold on to any of the passes. Afterward he said he has to get “better.”
“I have to come down with those balls,” Cooper told San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler.
Yet as the 1-0 Raiders prepare to host the New York Jets (0-1) Sunday at O.co Coliseum, Carr says he’ll have no qualms about aiming passes Cooper’s way in Game 2 of the season or any other game.
“I’m always going to go to him,” Carr told Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “Obviously, we didn’t hit on all of them that we wanted to hit on (vs. the Titans). Credit that to being the first game because we were just a little bit off, on my end, on his end, whoever it was. It doesn’t matter. The confidence will always be there. … I’ll never shy away, good or bad.”
The Jets defense, too, could be vulnerable Sunday to the Carr-Cooper connection. New York gave up 8 yards per pass attempt in its loss to Buffalo, and Cooper says he’s noticed in film study this week that the Jets often employed single coverage vs. the Bills.
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To him, that’s a challenge.
“When someone’s playing you man-to-man coverage, they’re basically saying that guy’s better than you,” Cooper told Gutierrez. “So that’s why a lot of receivers feed off of that.”
Oddsmakers believe Cooper and the rest of the Raiders could have a big day Sunday, making Oakland a 13½-point favorite.
Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m.
