The honeymoon is over for Antonio Pierce of the Las Vegas Raiders after his recent loss

The majority of Las Vegas Raiders fans wanted them to keep Antonio Pierce as their full-time head coach after he succeeded Josh McDaniels on an interim basis last season.

Pierce led the Raiders to a 5-4 record in nine games. The culture had changed greatly after McDaniels’ brief and disastrous stay in Vegas.

Even though owner Mark Davis didn’t even have experience as a coordinator in the NFL, he decided to hire Pierce full-time.

Fast forward several months and this could very well look like a huge mistake on Davis’ part.

The Raiders traveled to Denver on Sunday to take on division rival Broncos. This came after a mediocre first four games in which the Raiders showed themselves well with a win over the Baltimore Ravens. That win was immediately followed by an ugly home loss to the lowly Carolina Panthers.

After rebounding last week against Cleveland. The Raiders showed their old tricks again on Sunday. They lost 34-18 on the road after taking a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.

Everything that could have gone wrong actually went wrong. That included a 100-yard interception return by Patrick Surtain II for a touchdown off Gardner Minshew.

Just a terrible decision by Minshew on this play. The Raiders had a chance to make this game a two-touchdown game. Instead, things suddenly stood firm.

“We just have to do better and put complete games together,” Minshew told reporters after the game.

Minshew led the Raiders to four three-and-outs in five possessions before throwing an interception on his final play. He was eventually replaced by Aidan O’Connell in the middle.

Defensively, the Raiders allowed Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix to complete 19 of 27 passes with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

All of this is happening amid major drama behind the scenes in Sin City. That includes the fact that star wide receiver Davante Adams has likely played his final game with the Silver and Black. Adams, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury, told Raiders leadership last week that he preferred a trade. They are working with other teams to do just that before the NFL trade deadline on November 5th.

Antonio Pierce of the Las Vegas Raiders is under fire after his recent loss

It was Week 3 when the Raiders were riding high after an improbable road win against reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.

They were ready for their home opener against a Carolina Panthers team that had lost 17 of 19 since the start of the 2023 season.

What followed was a disaster of epic proportions. Vegas lost 36:22 in front of its home crowd. At this point, the honeymoon between Pierce and the Raiders appeared to be over. His comments after the game added another layer to that.

“I think there were definitely some people who made business decisions. And we will continue to make business decisions going forward,” Pierce told reporters at the time.

It is not yet known whether these comments led to the aforementioned drama between Adams and the Raiders. However, given the timeline of events in Southern Nevada, it’s not too difficult to read between the lines.

As for Sunday’s humiliating performance against the Broncos, Pierce said turnovers were a large part of their loss.

“We knew there would be one or two plays in the game that wouldn’t go our way. “Obviously that’s what happened,” Pierce told reporters after the game on the Raiders’ official website. “We ended up coming back here at halftime, it was a 10-13 ball game. We had to keep playing and we just didn’t make enough plays. Obviously penalties and turnovers killed us.”

In addition to Minshew throwing two interceptions, O’Connell had a pick of his own. Vegas turned the ball over three times while the Broncos played mistake-free football. Denver turned those three turnovers into 14 points, including the Surtain pick-six. Committing 11 penalties didn’t help either and was as much a duty of the coach as it was the players.

Where do Antonio Pierce and the Raiders go from here?

It’s hard to say. The team is 2-3 this season and does not appear to be at playoff level.

Vegas will now have to deal with the likes of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals next month. There could certainly be a snowball effect in this regard. Add in the drama off the field and you really have to wonder if Pierce has lost his team. It’s crazy to think about it after just 14 games as the Raiders’ coach.

It’s too early to talk about Pierce getting it all done. But he seems overwhelmed at this point.

Aside from the drama and the Raiders’ performance, Pierce has also been in the headlines lately for all the wrong reasons.

Pierce received an eight-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for violations while he was an assistant coach for Arizona State. The penalty comes after an investigation found Pierce engaged in recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In issuing an eight-year remand order for Pierce, the panel emphasized his role as a leader in orchestrating the recruiting violations,” the NCAA report said, via ESPN.

The penalty calls for Pierce to receive a one-year suspension if he is hired by an NCAA team before October 2032.

This will have no impact on Pierce’s standing in Vegas. Rather, it’s another example of the bad headlines surrounding Pierce that appear almost everywhere.

It’s now up to Pierce to bring his players together in the face of tough games ahead. Whether he has this ability remains to be seen.