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The Las Vegas Raiders might have made a mistake with Antonio Pierce. The rose is off the bloom in record time already in “Raider Nation.” Since taking the interim position in 2023, Pierce is 7-10. There have been several problems with his tenure and it’s not showing any signs of improvement. If a team is tanking that is one thing, but the Las Vegas Raiders are legitimately losing in humiliating fashion. Everybody had high hopes, but those hopes have been dashed. Pierce’s tenure resembles those of Joe Bugel in 1997 and Art Shell in 2006.
Pierce Repeats the Same Mistakes Every Week
One of the biggest issues of Pierce’s tenure has been stubbornness. He fails to adapt to different situations, even when he’s made a mistake previously in the same situation. One mistake Pierce has repeated twice this season has been punting the ball while trailing in a game despite being on the opposing team’s side of the field. He’s also burned through timeouts repeatedly, and given opponents extra opportunities to score points. He did this as an interim head coach, and he does it now as the full-time head coach one year later.
In addition to that, it’s week nine and Pierce is saying the Las Vegas Raiders “don’t have an identity.” They’re dead last in rushing, have the worst turnover differential in the NFL, and have an inept offensive strategy every week. The Las Vegas Raiders do have an identity and it’s not a good one. Their identity is that they aren’t a good football team. Another issue is Pierce doubles down whenever he makes any mistakes, instead blaming the players rather than taking responsibility for his mistakes.
Coaching Staff Is Setting Them Up For Failure
Last week against the rival Kansas City Chiefs might have been the worst clock management of the Pierce era. Pierce instructed Offensive Coordinator Luke Getsy to run out the clock to get to halftime despite being down by four with one timeout, and the Chiefs having two timeouts. Las Vegas ran a shovel pass, ran the ball up the middle, and then threw an incompletion. Kansas City got the ball back with a timeout left after the offense threw an incompletion on third down. They ended the half with a seven-point lead thanks to the failed conservative strategy.
In addition in the second half, Pierce inexplicably burned all of the Las Vegas Raiders timeouts on defense trying to stop Patrick Mahomes. It led to the Raiders not having any timeouts when they were trying to come back and they were forced to attempt an onside kick. Pierce also had the Raiders kicking a field goal down by eight points in the fourth quarter against the Rams despite being on the nine-yard line. The extremely baffling strategies that Pierce doubles down on after every loss have backfired at every turn.
Discipline and Motivation Have Disappeared
The Las Vegas Raiders’ defense was supposed to be the strong point of the team. Instead, they lead the NFL in missed tackles. To add to the problems, the number of penalties the team has tallied up over the last several games has been ridiculous. To start the season, nobody was penalized less than the Raiders over the first five games. They’ve lost their discipline and their motivation as the defeats have rained down on them, and they’ve disintegrated into a bad team.
The insistence on the offense of going away from anything that’s working has also been baffling. Getsy is not a good offensive coordinator as we saw in Chicago, and this season has been further proof. The red zone playcalling is atrocious. Two weeks ago they ran four straight passing plays and then turned it over on downs, then this past week they ran it four straight times and turned it over. They run the ball on first and second down 70% of the time, easily more than any other team in football.
Conclusion
The leaders of the Las Vegas Raiders pounded the table for Pierce to be the Head Coach. Maxx Crosby said he would demand a trade out of Las Vegas if the Raiders didn’t hire Pierce. Davante Adams and Josh Jacobs also vouched for Pierce to get the job, but those two leaders are now gone. Adams was a massive advocate for Getsy and Pierce and ended up demanding a trade to the Jets. This is not the first time this organization has had players demand the hiring of a Head Coach only for it to backfire spectacularly.
In 1997 following the firing of Mike White, Al Davis hired Bugel as the Head Coach. Team leaders such as Tim Brown all said that Bugel was the most liked coach and needed to be the next Head Coach. It led to a 4-12 season and Bugel getting fired. The team lost all accountability. It led to incidents such as Chester McGlockton interrupting practice in a giant yellow raincoat by standing in the middle of the field, and Brown calling all of the plays on offense. Don’t be surprised if you see similar incidents happen with this Las Vegas Raiders team going forward.
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