Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
The Raiders cannot make the same mistake again
During the 2021 NFL season, the Las Vegas Raiders lost head coach Jon Gruden when he resigned midseason after homophobic, misogynistic, and racist emails sent by the coach surfaced from before he joined the organization. The Raiders named special teams coach Rich Bisaccia their interim head coach and made a surprising run to the playoffs.
Only to turn around and hand the job to Josh McDaniels the following offseason.
This year, the Raiders fired McDaniels midseason and named linebackers coach Antonio Pierce their interim head coach. Pierce took over when the team was 3-5, and missing the playoffs seemed like a foregone conclusion.
However, now the Raiders sit at 7-8 on the season, with Pierce having guided the team to a 4-3 record under his stewardship. Not only do the Raiders have a chance at making the playoffs — although they would need to win their final two games and get some help along the way — but the team is coming off perhaps their two most impressive wins in recent memory.
Two weeks ago the Raiders throttled the Los Angeles Chargers on a Thursday night, ending a three-game losing streak and putting an end to the Brandon Staley era in Los Angeles. After suffering a 3-0 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings the previous week, the Raiders came out and dropped 63 on the Chargers, including 42 in the first half alone. It was a franchise record for points in a game, and the Raiders set a new record for points by a single team after being shut out the previous week.
However, beating a floundering Chargers team without Justin Herbert is one thing. But what the Raiders did on Christmas Day might be Pierce’s best work yet. Las Vegas went into Kansas City, when the Chiefs had a chance at clinching their eighth-straight AFC West title, and stymied Patrick Mahomes and company. Las Vegas won that game 20-14, and held Patrick Mahomes to just 235 passing yards, as the Chiefs offense continues to sputter its way to the finish line.
The old linebacker even got a little emotional after that win:
Along the way, the Raiders seem to have an identity again, something that has been missing the past few seasons. Pierce himself pointed to that in a tremendous statement to the media about why he should retain the job going forward:
“My resume is on the grass. What do you want? I can put up a fancy presentation, I’ve seen that before. I can put up stats, I can put up my resume, but the best thing that happened for me was an opportunity,” Pierce told reporters Tuesday via Tyler Dragon of USA Today.
“I said this maybe last week, the worst day I was going to be as a head coach was my first day. And each day is my job and I really take pride in growing each and every day to get better. No different than when I was a player to get better. And by the end, you look at it, whatever your career was and whatever my coaching career is, and you sit there and say, ‘Look, this is what he was.’ And hopefully (Raiders owner) Mark Davis sees improvement and growth within our team.
“He sees the style and play that he wants from the Raiders. He sees a fan base that’s behind us. He sees a building that loves coming to work and loves being here. And people that’s covering the team, enjoying covering the team. And at the end of the day, we got to win. And right now, my record, our record is 4-3.”
Back in 2021, many believed that the job Bisaccia did down the stretch was enough to earn him the job on a permanent basis going forward. Davis, however, went in a different direction, bringing in McDaniels. It was another offensive-minded head coach hiring, in the wake of Davis hiring Gruden.
The team went 9-16 under McDaniels.
The Raiders need to avoid making the same mistake they did back in 2021, turning their backs on what worked down the stretch that season. Pierce, with what he has done overall, and in particular these past two weeks, has earned this job going forward.
His resume, as he says, is on the grass.
And it is a good one.
