Derek Carr prepares for unknown in Raiders’ season opener

As Derek Carr and the Raiders prepare to play the Carolina Panthers, their season-opening opponent on Sunday, they are journeying into the unknown.

This time last year, Panthers head coach Matt Rhule was coaching at Baylor, offensive coordinator Joe Brady was the passing game coordinator at LSU, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was the backup to Drew Brees with the New Orleans Saints, and defensive coordinator Phil Snow was running Rhule’s defense in Waco.

Without the benefit of any preseason games to uncover clues as to what the Panthers might do offensively and defensively, the Raiders are essentially wearing blindfolds as they prepare for the Panthers.

“It reminds me a lot of college and high school games where you didn’t even have any film or you didn’t even know who was on the other team,” Carr said. “You just do your best, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Said Raiders head coach Jon Gruden: “It’s a little bit like when you’re a high school coach. You just drive across the county to exchange films. But unfortunately, their coach never shows up. … It’s a challenge, no doubt.”

The question becomes, how much will it matter?

As Carr heads into year three in Gruden’s system, his command of the offense has grown. Coupled with the young talent now at his disposal, Carr believes the Raiders’ offense is capable of dictating terms regardless of what the opponent is doing.

That might have to be the case against the Panthers, who present a definite level of mystery given all the changes they have made over the past 12 months. Carr doesn’t seem too worried.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll be ready to go,” Carr said. “We’ll make the adjustments that we need to make. But I’m excited. I’m excited about week one.”

One key is the Raiders being more efficient in turning possessions into points. It’s an area where they struggled last year. They had the fifth-fewest drives in the NFL and averaged the 19th fewest points on them.

To put that in perspective, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens had the fewest drives in the NFL last year, but the Ravens averaged a league-leading 3.08 points per drive, and the Chiefs were second at 2.70. That is compared with the Raiders’ 1.87 average.

The Ravens and Chiefs also were No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in total scoring. The Raiders were 24th.

The issue for the Raiders was not enough possession opportunities and then not maximizing those chances. That was particularly true in the red zone, where their 52.83 red zone touchdown percentage ranked 22nd in the NFL.

Conversely, the Raiders were 11th in total offense, averaging 363 yards per game and seventh in third-down conversion percentage at 43.78 percent.

It was a case of doing a lot of things well only to fail to cash in on the scoreboard.

“We’d bite ourselves in the foot with how many times we weren’t able to score inside the 15-yard line,” Carr said. “How many times there was a turnover. How many times we got stopped on downs.”

Said Gruden: “We have to get better in our goal-to-goal offense. We walked away seven times with nothing. We turned it over down there. We got shut out on downs, down there from the one-inch line, I think four times.”

Improving that has been a point of emphasis throughout training camp. Now the Raiders have to put action to words.

“We gotta be able to punch the ball in when we get in the red zone,” Carr said. “There’s gotta be a killer instinct where we’re not leaving without touchdowns.” .

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore onTwitter.