Moving Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Bo Hardegree upstairs to a bird’s-eye view led to astronomical success this week, similar to the defense’s shot caller in Patrick Graham.
As most Raiders fans will recall, when Graham moved upstairs, something clicked. The defense went from average success to becoming one of the elite units in the league—that’s right, elite. No one’s claiming that this will repeat itself for Hardegree and the offense, but Thursday night’s action reset the tone for the rest of the year.
The Raiders made a change with Bo Hardegree, and boy, did it work.
Interim head coach Antonio Pierce broke down what went into that decision following the Raiders’ historical blowout win over the Los Angeles Chargers within the confines of Allegiant Stadium.
“It’s just something I thought about for some time. It’s been building up, and obviously, after last week’s performance, we needed to make a change. And I think it worked out well for us.”
As Pierce mentioned, the shutout against the Minnesota Vikings was the final straw. The same offensive woes that plagued Josh McDaniels appeared to be affecting this interim staff. Well, Coach Pierce had seen enough and, rather than sit on his laurels, did something about it. He adapted, sending Hardegree to the coaches’ box. Seeing the whole field all at once, Hardegree and his play calling picked apart the Chargers’ defense, touchdown after touchdown—it was a bloodbath.
Has Las Vegas found an identity on offense?
The Raiders made it a point to attack downfield; the team, it appears, responded. Moving forward, Coach Pierce talked about having confidence and not only attacking but also getting everyone involved from the outset.
“We have a lot of skilled players that we know, and it just takes confidence. I wish we could do it day one; I wish we could just draw it up and it’s that easy, but obviously it took us six games to do it, and I hope that’s part of what’s going forward the rest of the year.”
Both Pierce and Hardegree are auditioning for jobs; their future is uncertain. If the Raiders close out the next handful of games with similar offensive showings, you’d be hard-pressed to believe that owner Mark Davis won’t be impressed. If you add in a solid draft class and free agency crop, Hardegree’s offense could be onto something. Either that, or the Chargers are just really bad.
*Top Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
