Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said Derek Carr expected to play next week

OAKLAND -- Derek Carr, who sat out Sunday's 30-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens for the Oakland Raiders' third straight loss, will play next week against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Raiders coach Jack Del Rio was asked if he had a "feel" about Carr being ready to play next week, adding "Yeah, I have that feel."

Carr, who suffered a transverse process fracture at Denver, was among the seven Raiders players inactive against the Ravens, even as he was a team captain for the opening coin flip.

Del Rio was also asked if the Raiders gave any serious thought to playing Carr against Baltimore after he sat out practice on Wednesday (he did non-weight bearing work in the rehab pool) but was limited in practice on Thursday and Friday.

"Look, we went through the whole issue," Del Rio said. "Took the time that we had. Decided it was best not to play him today. He was pushing pretty hard to play. There was enough of a decision where I made him questionable."

In Carr's absence, EJ Manuel threw for 159 yards with a 41-yard touchdown to Michael Crabtree while completing 13 of 26 passes. He was sacked three times.

Manuel was also down 14-0 before he took his third snap.

"It's the nature of the beast," Manuel said. "I've been in every situation you can think of in this league, for the most part. So it wasn't something to get me rattled or our offense rattled. The biggest thing was just handling what we can handle and that was the next drive.

"There's no such thing as a 14-point touchdown or anything like that, so you just have to go one touchdown at a time."