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The Las Vegas Raiders are a bad team. They lost 27-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday to drop to 2-6 on the season. What has to be frustrating for the team is that this was a very winnable game.
However, the Raiders were held back by some very poor coaching. It started with Antonio Pierce trying to run out the clock with nearly two minutes left in the first half, which led to the Chiefs getting three easy points, and it ended with the Raiders within seven points with two minutes left in the game but had no timeouts because Pierce burned them all before the final drive.
Pierce got the Raiders head coaching job after an impressive stint in the interim role last season. Not that he’s the man in charge, his faults are much more apparent. Despite the fact that the team has cycled through many coaches over the years, fans have already seen enough of Pierce.
Pierce may have a bright future as a coach but his lack of experience is apparent. He doesn’t call plays and his game management has been horrific so it’s unclear what he’s bringing to the table.
Raiders Need to Let Season Play out Before Making HC Change
Many are ready for the Raiders to move on from Pierce right now but that would be a mistake. The team needs to at least ride it out for the rest of the season. What if they promote defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and he has a similar effect to what Pierce did last season?
That puts owner Mark Davis in a pickle once again. He needs to be able to conduct a full head coaching search without the pressure of having to hire the interim head coach. That’s just setting the team up for failure once again.
The Raiders need to finish out the season with Pierce to see if he can show some more promise and if he doesn’t, they can blow up the coaching staff.
Antonio Pierce Talks Chiefs Loss
Pierce definitely faced hardship as the Raiders’ interim head coach last season but nothing compared to what he’s dealing with now. Following the loss to the Chiefs, he tried to remain positive.
“We were competitive today,” Pierce said during his October 27 press conference. “I mean, I’m sure there’s questions about what I did, but I think one thing our team did was we were competitive. We fought until the very end and gave ourselves a chance.”
The most baffling coaching decision he made during the game was at the end of the second half when he decided it would be better to try and run out the clock instead of trying to score points. He explained his rationale.
“We wanted to score but, more importantly, we wanted to keep the clock running,” Pierce said. “Going against a really good team in a two-minute situation, you want to get a first down, allow them to use their timeouts and give Patrick Mahomes the least amount of time possible.”
The response doesn’t make sense and it just further shows that Pierce’s inexperience is an issue.
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