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Early in his innings, on the second evening, Steven Smith went back to try to cut Rangana Herath off the line of the stumps. The ball skidded through, Smith was hurried in his shot, and the ball skittered away for no run. Immediately, Smith reeled away in self-recriminating histrionics, angry at himself for taking the same risk that resulted in his dismissal in Galle.Of all his Test hundreds, this was perhaps Smiths most draining. He has had a difficult tour, his first experience of defeat as captain, and tried several methods to succeed as a batsman in a region where he had never scored a century.There had been extremes of approach in Pallekele; first a harebrained charge down the pitch that precipitated a ruinous first innings, then a highly disciplined second innings wagon wheel; his scoring was restricted almost exclusively to leg side deflections until Rangana Herath found a way through. In Galle, Smith tried something in between with limited success, before, if anything, adding a few more shots to the locker at the SSC.Importantly, he chose to add the inside out drive over cover to his methods of scoring off Herath, a shot the left-arm spinner is known to detest almost as much as the blow to the groin that took him from the field for periods of days two and three. Smith was then able to rejoice in the success of Shaun Marsh, and mark a milestone of his own: a first hundred in Asia and the first signs that Australia might be able to find a workable blueprint to defeat India at home in February-March 2017.There were plenty of cues to be taken from the way Marsh went about his own business: covering his stumps, not being perturbed by balls that spun and capitalising on anything fractionally loose. There was also liberal use of the sweep shot - the result of overnight discussion between Marsh, the coach Darren Lehmann and the team analyst Dene Hills - including for the nibble down leg side that took him to three figures for the fourth time in Tests.I was just trying to stick to my game plan, Marsh said. Trying to play for the straight ball and if it spun past me so be it. I was basically trying to do that over and over again and it was really challenging out there. It was good fun.Last night night when [Dilruwan Perera] came over the wicket to me, he caused me a few little problems. So I had a good chat with Boof and Dene Hills last night and it was certainly something for me to come out today and play that shot. It worked well. I was very relieved when it was called runs … I thought I got a little bit of glove there…But even as Smith and Marsh went on to a put together a stand of 246, the highest second wicket stand in Tests between Australia and Sri Lanka, the feeling remained that danger was only ever a ball or two away.Smith and Marsh made a significant stride in Australias efforts to find a better way in these conditions, but once they were dismissed, there was soon a reminder of how much more needs to be done by others. Having ascended as high as 267 for 1, the last nine went down for 112. This was not, in fairness, an unprecedented occurrence in these parts. Plenty of Australian teams have fallen in similar heaps after a big stand is broken. In 2001 in India it happened virtually every time Matthew Hayden got out, in 2010 likewise after Ricky Pontings exit. The progress made in Colombo was the fact that at least one partnership had been formed, so for once there was actually a platform to squander.Even so, the litany that followed the dismissals of Marsh (to pace) and Smith will be a source of further concern for the coach Darren Lehmann and whoever is chosen to work as his full-time batting assistant after this tour. The inclusion of Moises Henriques as a No. 5 batsman reached a sad, yet foreseeable conclusion; the New South Wales allrounder poking around nervously until drawn out of his crease by Herath. While serious injury and a preponderance of Twenty20 assignments have made it hard for Henriques, the fact remained that the most recent of his four first-class hundreds was as far back as March 2015. Expecting another one here was asking a lot.Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh and Peter Nevill all showed varying signs of improvement, trying to adapt the clam style earlier exhibited by Smith and Shaun Marsh. Voges was perhaps unfortunate to be given out on a marginal lbw call, and Marsh could at least toast his first 50 since his second Test, against Pakistan in the UAE near enough to two years ago. Nevills latest low score was a cause for more worries, as the wait for substantial runs from a wicketkeeper with a strong first-class record continues. A dropped catch in Australias brief stint in the field was a sign of sapped confidence, and Nevills edge on other suitors for the gloves will not last if that continues.In all, this was a day in which Australia found the first few green shoots of genuine progress in Asia, yet still found themselves in a dicey position by the time stumps were drawn. Smith will be frustrated with this of course. At least he now has helped to fashion a working example of how his batsmen should operate in this part of the world. Stephen Curry Jersey . 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Its the beginning of the fourth quarter, and Oakland is losing 24-13. Third-year quarterback Derek Carr takes a snap, drops back a few steps and then surveys the field--calmly, like a father waiting for his children to appear on the steps of their school. After a moment passes, he slings a beautifully arched pass to wide receiver Amari Cooper, who has somehow crept behind the Saints secondary. Its a 43-yard gain and another highlight-reel throw for Carr.Now go back and watch again. Instead of waiting for Carr to release the ball, pay attention to everything that happens beforehand. Watch the Raiders tackles shoot their arms out and manhandle their defenders, while the guards refuse to cede an inch. Watch the chasm that opens up between the offensive line and the quarterback, an expanse of green that never seems to close. Watch the clock as the seconds tick by.Thats what Derek Carr remembers from that day. The time and the space and, more than anything, the smacking of pads and the crunching of bones and the terrible cries of mountain-sized men being knocked around by his blockers. He remembers dropping behind his offensive line as thunderous collisions unfolded in front of him, bearing witness to a level of violence that still leaves him awestruck.You can see it on film and you can see it on TV and you can see it in person, he says. But when youre behind it?Behind 10-foot eyelashes, his blue eyes widen.You can hear it.There comes a point in every story about Derek Carr when his older brothers name is invoked, typically as source material for the young quarterbacks innate gifts -- and, until recently, his perceived flaws. David Carr, the Houston Texans No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft, famously went bust. When Derek entered the draft in 2014, he had put up Heisman-worthy numbers at Fresno State, but Davids story lingered in scouting reports like a bad Yelp review, and several QB-starved teams (including Houston) passed on the younger brother, sending him tumbling into the second round.Their loss. After two and a half seasons with the Raiders, Derek has bloomed into a viable MVP candidate, steering his team to seven wins on the back of an exhilarating aerial attack. Heading into Monday nights tilt with the Texans in Mexico City, he has thrown 17 TDs and just three interceptions, a ratio that puts him in elite company and could set him up for a mammoth new deal. When the ball is in his hands late in the game, everybody believes something big is gonna happen, says Matt Hasselbeck, a former NFL quarterback who now works as an ESPN analyst. I saw that with Brett Favre when I was his teammate.And so it is that Dereks story has finally subsumed his origin myth -- and that his brothers failure, once an indelible part of that record, has faded away like a discredited theory. But to ignore it would also be a mistake. Because while Carr has risen on the strength of his unique talents, he has soared because of the giants who stand in front of him -- those violent actors who buy him room to breathe, a luxury David never experienced as a young quarterback. Ive been able to see complete, total opposite sides of it, Carr says. I saw my brother in Houston have nothing. And I have our offensive line, which I think is the best in the NFL.The contrast is astonishing. David, who played behind a rotating cast of human turnstiles on the then newly formed Texans, was sacked a record 76 times during his rookie year, which is more than Derek has been taken down since entering the NFL. This year the Raiders offensive line has allowed just 11 sacks and 21 quarterback hits, ranking first in the league through Week 10. Theyve held up against stiff competition. The Broncos dominant front seven, which entered their Nov. 6 game against the Raiders with the best pressure percentage of any team since 2008, according to ESPN Stats & Information, hassled Carr on a mere 21 percent of his dropbacks, Denvers worst performance to that point of the season.To hear Carr tell it, battling Von Miller & Co. was like flying over traffic in a private jet. We just played the best pass rushers in the NFL and it was the most comfortable Ive felt, he says. The Raiders began building the current iteration of the line in 2014, the year rookie Carr became the teams starter. Right tackle Menelik Watson was already on the roster; GM Reggie McKenzie added left tackle Donald Penn in free agency, then selected Gabe Jackson, the teams right guard, in the draft. The Raiders signed veteran center Rodney Hudson in 2015, then splurged a year later on Kelechi Osemele, arguably the leagues most formidable guard. To ensure that Osemele could continue playing inside, McKenzie re-signed Penn, and the line that fans call Carr Insurance was born.This influx of talent has come at a price. Thanks in part to their quarterbacks cheap contract, the Raiders currently devote $37.7 million in cap dollars to the offensive line, $3 million more than what any other team pays. When asked if hes aware of how expensive his line is, Carr nods. As it should be, he says. Mr. McKenzie told me from the beginning, when I was named the starter, he said, Were gonna build this thing around you. They see that Im valuable to them. They want to protect me.Donald Penn remembers the first time he saw Derek Carr at training camp. As he and the other starters looked on, the rookie quarterback fired bombs to the Raiders backups, showing off his crisp, flawless throwing motion. I was like, This kids got something about him, Penn says. He carried himself with a swagger.Penn -- older, tattooed, a little brash -- would seem to have little in common with Carr, who is almost comically wholesome, the sort of athlete destined to star in ads for milk and comfortable jeans. Ive never heard him say a cuss word! Penn says. But Carr, who grew up hanging around David in locker rooms for more than a decade (when he was 6, he says, he used to eat lunch with his brother in the high school cafeteria), has always slid into new groups with ease. When he became the Raiders starter, he began attending the offensive line meetings and tagging along for their steakhouse dinners, gawkiing as his massive teammates overloaded the table with food.dddddddddddd He can recite information about their hobbies and their families, and hes shared his strong Christian faith with them. He often tells them he loves them.While Carr has bonded with the entire group, hes grown closest with Hudson, the center who sets protections during games. Carr says he always pulls up a chair next to Hudson during team meetings and that the two of them will often stay up late on Saturday nights, bouncing ideas off each other in the team hotel. We just go to another level in our discussions -- stuff we dont want everyone to hear because their brains might explode, he says with a laugh.Hudson, a soft-spoken Alabama native, says hell be out at dinner, look at his phone and see that DC has been texting him videos of plays. Were in constant communication, he says.The Raiders offensive line is unique in several ways, aside from being the most expensive. Its starting unit is composed entirely of black players; Penn says theyve hung posters of the NCAA-championship-winning 1966 Texas Western basketball team and the Tuskegee Airmen, other groups that shared similar distinctions, in their practice room. Its also the heaviest line in football, with the average lineman weighing in at 324.2 pounds. That runs counter to the trend of teams employing lighter, more athletic linemen who can move side to side while blocking.Raiders O-line coach Mike Tice says he wants blockers who are brainy and athletic, but he doesnt deny that hes assembled a group of road-grading sledgehammers. The lines muscle was on full display in the Denver game, when the Raiders averaged 5.1 yards per rush. At one point, the team ran the same play 10 times in a row, simply overpowering the Broncos defensive line with brute force.In addition to tallying knockdowns (Jackson, the right guard, is known for racking up pancake blocks), Tice also tracks takedowns, which occur when a lineman uses his hands to bring down a rusher. People say you cant be physical pass-protecting -- they think you can only be physical in the run game. I disagree, he says. Even if were passing, I still want to knock guys down and keep the quarterback clean. Carr is known for his lightning-quick release, but Tice wants his line to buy him enough time so that he can set his feet before taking deep shots, especially against defenses that play tight coverage. We pride ourselves on that, he says.When a quarterback can step into his throws and hes got an arm like Derek? He chuckles. People are in trouble.When Carr tells stories about his linemen mauling defensive players, he omits the opponents names to be respectful. The 25-year-old is incredibly polite and relentlessly positive. It sometimes seems he was manufactured in a lab for franchise quarterbacks, designed to appeal to GMs and grandmothers alike. So its a little jarring when he gets fired up in response to a question about his brothers career in Houston. I feel so bad for him because their team sucked, he says. (If that seems milquetoast, consider that sucked might be the closest thing to profanity in Carrs vocabulary.) Thats a team you dream of playing. The Raiders, if we wouldve played that team -- it wouldve been ridiculous. We wouldve looked forward to that.In high school, Carr was asked to write a paper making an argument on any topic. He elected to write about why the Texans shouldnt trade his brother. What quarterback wouldnt have struggled, young Derek wrote, with such a feeble supporting cast? He says David wouldve absolutely thrived behind the Raiders line. If I was on that Houston Texans team, I dont know if my body wouldve held up, he says. These days, when Carr sees quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Sam Bradford scrambling behind slipshod protection, he cringes. Honestly, I feel for them, he says. Im so thankful for what I have -- what we have.Its impossible to overstate the impact that offensive line play has on the development of a young quarterback. Just look at Dallas, where rookie Dak Prescott is thriving. While Prescott is undeniably talented, he has also been blessed with the opportunity to throw passes behind a battalion of human tanks. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Carson Wentz struggled in Philadelphia after Lane Johnson, the Eagles stud right tackle, was suspended and replaced with an inexperienced blocker.David Carr, who now works for the NFL Network, says that, after being repeatedly sacked and hit, he grew wary of his protection and gradually developed a skittishness that took permanent hold in his psyche. He compares being an NFL rookie to childhood -- a little boy or girl who grows up without encountering danger is more likely to become fearless. Its like that with quarterbacks, he says. If youre never in a situation where its a complete disaster, you can develop at a normal rate.He sees that growth in Derek. In college, the younger Carr completed 72 percent of his passes in a clean pocket but just 29 percent when under duress, according to ESPN Stats & Information. During his first two years in the NFL, he posted QBR ratings of 9.7 when pressured and 7.8 under duress. This year his QBR when pressured has risen to 41.4, which was eighth best in the NFL heading into Week 11.Because Carr mostly avoids contact, hes learned not to fear it, even during the rare plays when his linemen get pushed around. Theyve brainwashed me, he says with a laugh. As hes grown more composed and intrepid, hes become comfortable making adjustments on the fly. Take, for example, that throw to Cooper, the 43-yard completion in the Saints game in Week 1. Amari wasnt even supposed to get the ball, he says. But because they protected me for so long, I saw that no one was going anywhere. So I looked off the safety for, like, three seconds, and he had to take the bait. That ball never shouldve been completed against that coverage.Going forward, Carr says, he plans to continue taking more risks on the field, trying his hand at creative looks and passes. Its helped me take my game to another level, he says. In Oakland, he has the freedom to experiment -- and the time, and the space. ' ' '