Derek Carr breaks fibula in Raiders’ 33-25 win over Colts

The Packers’ fifth straight win set up a winner-take-all showdown next week with Detroit for the NFC North title, while extinguishing the Vikings’ faint postseason hopes. All that remains is to determine whether the Patriots or Raiders would hold the final advantage in terms of seeding. Two extra point kicks by Sebastian Janikowski failed, but the additional points didn’t matter much in the final score.

Now the team must prepare for a playoff run with Matt McGloin at quarterback. The game was scoreless at the 8:34 mark of the first quarter when an Indianapolis drive bogged down at the Oakland 30. The Colts did make it interesting at the end, though, cutting into the deficit to at least make the Raiders work for the victory.

Andrew Luck threw two first-half interceptions, both of which led to Oakland touchdowns.

Butler was injured while trying to tackle Raiders rookie running back Jalen Richard at the end of a 15-yard run. Safety Reggie Nelson came up with his team-leading fifth interception.

The Raiders have clinched their first playoff berth since 2002 and can win the division and earn a first-round bye with another win or a Kansas City loss. The third-year QB has the Raiders 11-3 and the champs of the AFC West. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a good quarterback and playoff experience, and the Chiefs have a quality defense, but New England clearly is the cream of the crop.

Carr doesn’t want to see his team letting up any time soon, especially with a desperate Colts team coming to Oakland.

The more Derek Carr (4) gets good protection and connects from the pocket, the better off the Raiders will be. He was replaced by Matt McGloin at quarterback.

There was no immediate word from the team on the severity of the injury, but replays seemed to indicate a teary-eyed Carr telling teammates, “It’s broken”. Carr has now been ruled as out indefinitely, putting the Raiders in a very hard position moving forward. That team, of course, was the eventual Super Bowl champions thanks to the play of backup Jeff Hostetler, though they were considerably more dependent on the play of their defense than these Raiders.

McGloin will start in the season finale in Denver.

With cornerstone players at two of the game’s most important positions and more help to come, the next step was hiring the right head coach.