Milestone meaningful for Raiders’ Hunter Renfrow

INDIANAPOLIS — Hunter Renfrow isn’t driven by numbers and often deflects individual attention in favor of team success.

He admitted, though, that there was something special about surpassing 1,000 yards for the season with his 7-catch, 76-yard performance in Sunday’s win over the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“It’s incredible,” Renfrow said after the game. “I’m not going to lie that did kind of seem out of the realm of possibility coming in as a rookie. I never had 600 yards in college. I just wanted to go out and be the best receiver I could be and give us a chance to win.”

If the Raiders do win their season-finale over the Chargers and make the playoffs, chances are Renfrow will be a major factor. He certainly was on Sunday.

He caught a touchdown pass on a fourth-down play early in the fourth quarter and then hauled in a long pass on third-and-10 to set up the game-winning field goal.

Interim coach Rich Bisaccia is running out of ways to talk about Renfrow’s importance to the team.

“The question keeps coming up and it comes up for a reason,” Bisaccia said. “He makes big plays in big situations and he’s done it his whole career. He did it at Clemson and now he’s doing it in the National Football League. I can’t say enough about the chemistry between him and Derek and his ability to understand the field and get himself in open positions.”

Redemption

Kicker Daniel Carlson made a rare mistake at the end of the first half when he kicked off out of bounds and gave the Colts great field position on a touchdown drive just before the intermission.

He atoned for the mishap with the game-winning field goal as time expired.

“That was just a mishit,” Carlson said after the game. “I’m sure I’ll get yelled at a little bit by Rich on that one, but hopefully not as much because of the result there at the end. It’s tougher losing after mistakes like that, but it’s something I have to keep working on. We all have areas we can clean up.”

While Bisaccia pointed to the kickoff as one of the mistakes that led to a poor finish to the first half, he never had a doubt about his kicker booting the game-winner through the uprights from 33 yards out.

“He plays like he practices,” said Bisaccia, the team’s special teams coordinator. “I don’t think much about it when he goes out there. We have a really good battery and our guys have done a really good job in protection up front. He has the mindset that even if he has a bad play before, like the kickoff, he’s able to come back and put himself in the mindset to help our team win. I think the whole team has total confidence in Daniel.”

Carlson has now made game-winning kicks on the final play of four Raiders’ victories this season, including three times in the last six games.

“It’s been an exciting season,” he said. “A lot of close games, which is how it’s supposed to be. Huge team win that wasn’t always pretty, but we found a way to win and did it with a last-second kick again.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.