What a bloody shambles Sunday was, huh? No, no. I don’t mean the Antonio Pierce-led Las Vegas Raiders 31-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, bruv. We’ve seen that story play out countless times: Raiders start off smoking hot and coming out like bloody gangbusters, only to watch the other blokes scream past them and come out like roses.
I’m referring to Pierce’s remarks during the post-game press conference that his team would be “carved up” like the turkey you Americans enjoyed on Thanksgiving.
Same old Raiders…
“Disappointed. We knew it was coming,” Pierce said when asked about the particular route that burned his defense. “There was a lot of speed on the field, opportunities there for us to get the guy down, give us another chance, and we didn’t do that. That’s a little bit of anticipation, increasing that awareness by formations, which I thought we did a good job of raising awareness and working on that throughout the week.
“Then in the game, again, what we talked about this week was execution, and in critical moments, especially late in the second half, we didn’t execute at a high level.”
Hold on, mate.
You bloody knew that was coming, and you couldn’t stop it? Pierced sounded a lot like that clueless wanker that led the Raiders before him, Josh McDaniels. We refer to that as “bollocks something up” over here across the pond. But as a Yankee once gloriously told me, you Americans likely refer to that as FUBAR. Look it up; I promise you won’t be disappointed, unlike how you were in the Raiders last weekend.
Player execution was the thing McDaniels pointed to on the reg. His offensive coordinator, Mick Lombardi, echoed it. Now, Pierce, who was picked to helm the team after owner Mark Davis threw out McDaniels like lukewarm tea, is saying it too. That’s not a good look, and Davis’s final decision on whether to keep Pierce as the team’s permanent head coach or look elsewhere to right the ship after the dunce McDaniels and the equally bollocks general manager Dave Ziegler charted it off course should take that into consideration.
Is Antonio Pierce any better than Josh McDaniels?
“No disrespect to them, but it was more about what we were doing,” said wide receiver Davante Adams after the game. “We didn’t really execute the way that we had earlier. We have to do a better job of sticking to the things that got us to that point and finding a way to finish.
“It’s frustrating and confusing too.”
Here’s also something frustrating and confusing: Antonio Pierce was no better than Josh McDaniels in the loss to the Chiefs by pointing to “player execution” and doing diddly about it.
Bruv, who is in charge of that? The head coach—he’s the leader of men, and after back-to-back wins rallying the Raiders, Pierce has lost that?
I doubt he has, but the proof is in the record. Competing against good teams is bloody inspiring, but the Silver and Black motto has long been “Just Win, Baby.” And that’s what Las Vegas must do. And if the Raiders don’t do that more under Pierce’s helm, then, bloody hell, toss him out with the garbage like was done to McDaniels.
Las Vegas Raiders And Aidan O’Connell Have Three Different Paths Moving Forward
What is Mark Davis thinking as the Chiefs continue to dominate?
The gap between the reluctant Raiders and the cheeky Chiefs is only going to widen, and the kinks in the Pierce armor are showing—uglily so. The class of the AFC West, Kansas City, used the trip to Las Vegas as the springboard to getting right and didn’t flinch after falling 14-0. They had cocky arrogance about them. Andy Reid and his Chiefs had a cheeky grin, bruv, and merely did what they’ve done all too well—stomp the Raiders.
The Chiefs have now won five straight contests against the Raiders, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes summed it up perfectly.
“Yeah, I think it’s all heart at the end of the day. In the second half, it goes down to who wants it more. You could have play designs, but for the most part, you’re off your script and you’re kind of picking up plays here and there, and coach Reid put us in the best possible position and coach (Matt) Nagy,” said Mahomes after the game. “At the same time, at the end of the day, you get to go out there and just want it, and I thought the guys did a great job with that today. Even when stuff wasn’t pretty, they made stuff happen, and then when the coach put us in the right spots, our guys caught the football, and I made the right decisions. In the second half of football games, it is about who wants it and how you can go out there and execute at a high enough level to win it.”
Best. Possible. Position. To. Succeed. That’s quite a novel concept, amigos.
A concept that the Raiders haven’t grasped yet.
The same cannot be said of Pierce and his bunch of buffoons (coaching staff). They knew what Kansas City wanted to do and did little to stop it. And after an opening drive and a bloody, brilliant touchdown run by Josh Jacobs, Pierce’s Raiders teased Raider Nation.
Now don’t get me wrong. The situation Antonio Pierce rose to isn’t ideal. Paragons of roster building and player development, McDaniels and Ziegler were not. Immediately, when Pierce and Champ Kelly ascended to the interim roles of head coach and general manager, they were behind the proverbial eight ball.
And going toe-to-toe with a clearly superior Chiefs team (roster and coaching-wise) only compounds matters for both Pierce and Kelly. But that most definitely doesn’t absolve Pierce of how the Raiders performed.
“They didn’t out-scheme us anything,” cornerback Amik Robertson said in the locker room after the game. “It was just 15 running around, finding open spots, and throwing the ball. Same sh*t since I was a rookie. We have to find a way, especially when we go up like that. We have to step on their throats—on both sides of the ball.”
Same sh*t, huh, bruv?
Yeah, that shouldn’t fly and should be grounds for Davis to look elsewhere.
The Raiders need a coach who has the team well-prepared and executing for all four quarters of a ball game. Pierce can only do it for the first quarter. And that’s not good enough. That’s not “Just Win, Baby.”
Mark Davis would do himself well to make the coaching search expansive and not spare any expense.
The Raiders’ spirit is dimming as the flame of Antonio Pierce’s ascension is beginning to flicker. Thank the Chiefs for showing Raider Nation exactly that.
*Top Photo: Sports Illustrated/Fan Nation