Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce had moving words for his team after their humiliating 36-22 loss to the Carolina Panthers, who are considered one of the weakest teams in the league.
“We took a beating,” Pierce said in the postgame press conference. “We’ve got to put the pads on and get on the sled. Same group that’s mostly come back, same techniques, same coaches. There’s no other scheme, so obviously you’ve got to coach better and be tough on the guys, some guys will take a tough workout. Because that’s just the way it is, we didn’t see that coming on both sides of the ball, we thought we had an opportunity to run the ball, but we didn’t, we didn’t do that at all. We kept trying.
“I would have booed us too. Offensively, defensively, and up front we didn’t play well enough. That’s not good enough.”
The Raiders were elated after their supposedly momentous win over the Baltimore Ravens. The Panthers appeared to be at their breaking point, benching quarterback Bryce Young, a 2023 first-round draft pick, for veteran signal-caller Andy Dalton. It looked like the Raiders would pull out a solid win at home.
The team didn’t get off to a particularly good start, to say the least. The running game was once again weak. The Raiders managed a total of 55 yards on the ground. Only 3.4 yards per attempt.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew suffered two nasty sacks and threw an interception. Edge rusher Maxx Crosby was taken out of the game completely by the Panthers (and due to injury) and managed only one solo tackle (three in total) and one defended pass.
The Panthers ran over the Raiders, led by Chuba Hubbard’s 114 yards and touchdowns on 21 carries. Regarding his team’s performance, Pierce gave a somewhat ominous answer.
“I think as the game went on, there were definitely some individuals who made business decisions,” Pierce said. “And we’ll continue to make business decisions in the future.”
The loss leaves the Raiders at 1-2 ahead of their game against the Cleveland Browns next week, which will be their second home game in a row.
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