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ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Amari Cooper is quickly picking up a reputation as a player who, when he identifies a problem, attacks it like a 50/50 ball in the sky. Or have you forgotten his point of emphasis last week to work on dragging his foot on the sidelines, rather than tapping his toe? It came into play last weekend with a pretty sideline catch. After struggling with drops as a rookie last season -- ESPN Stats & Info had him with 10 dropped passes, which were the second-most in the NFL, and Pro Football Focus had him dropping a league-high 18 passes on 90 catchable passes -- he has made huge strides of late. PFF has Cooper going three straight games without a drop. "Just staying the course, practicing hard, trying to do everything the right way," Cooper said Wednesday. "The results will follow." The results have spoken volumes the past two weeks. Against San Diego on Oct. 9, Cooper had a career-high 138 receiving yards. Then, last week against Kansas City, Cooper had a career-best 10 catches, with nine in the first half. His PFF grade of 88.0 for the Chiefs game was the second-highest of any receiver in the league through Sunday’s games. Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said the past few weeks of practice have been Cooper’s best. "It just happened that for whatever reason he’s making these crazy plays in practice and it’s happening in the games," Carr said. "You can also tell, we talk about the sideline deal, he worked extremely hard at that and then you see him make two, three, four catches on the sideline over and over again, keeping those feet in, dragging the foot and all those things. "When you get into that second year, things just start clicking. Things just in your head and out there on the field, and I think he’s figuring it out." Cooper, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2015 draft, has 36 receptions for 585 yards this season, numbers that rank seventh and fourth in the league, respectively. He is locked in, producing 16 catches for 267 yards over the past two weeks combined. And yes, fulfilling Carr’s prophecy heading into this weekend's game in Jacksonville, so to speak. "I try to practice hard every day, all the time," Cooper said with a smile and shrug. "But, yeah."
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