Raiders bye week: All eyes turn to Antonio Pierce’s culpability in this mess

We’ll see how Las Vegas head coach handles staff reset and what progress team can make in wake of changes

Fed up with what he saw in the nine games that resulted in his football team sporting a 2-7 record, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce didn’t waste time.

In the wake of the team’s 41-24 road loss at the Cincinnati Bengals this past Sunday, Pierce made the decision to dismiss offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg, and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello.

Wait, Pierce made the decision?, you may be asking.

According to the head coach during his Monday press conference, it was his call.

“100 percent my decision,” Pierce said when asked if anyone influenced his decision-making process late Sunday night.

“Yeah, just performance, results and production. Just wasn’t heading in the direction I wanted it to go,” Pierce noted regarding the decision to relieve the trio of former Raiders assistants of their duties. “And I’ll use the next 24 to 48 hours to sit down with the staff and figure out who’s going to call the offense going forward.”

After waffling during the week over Getsy’s play calling and his player’s execution of said offense during his media availability, Pierce watched his team generate a meager 217 yards of total offense in the blowout loss to Cincinnati.

Enough was enough for the Raiders’ braggadocios head coach.

The staff reset comes at an opportune time as the Raiders are on a bye week. The late Sunday night dismissals gives Pierce and his remaining staff the ability to reassemble. The head coach determined Scott Turner taking over play calling duties while Joe Philbin leads the offensive line. And It’s ample for Pierce, his remaining coaching staff, and his players to reflect and regroup with eight games left on the 2024 slate.

Pierce wanted a domineering offense that imposes its will on the opposition. Bully ball, basically. Instead, what he got from Getsy, Cregg, and Scangarello was an offense that coughed up the ball way too much, got smacked around by the opposition, and was playing silly ball. The Raiders boast the 26th ranked scoring offense (18.7 points per game average, 168 points total) and the dead-last ranked ground game that’s produced just 692 yards.

“Yeah, I just want to see us man, like I always talked about, us looking right, sounding right, matching the philosophy and idea of what I preach, which is physicality, ability to run the ball, taking shots down the field, protecting the football first and foremost, disciplined up front,” Pierce said on what he’s looking towards in terms of offensive philosophy. “I think what we’re going to do going forward, we’ve got to deal with what we have to. Obviously, we’re dealing with injuries. A lot of new players are in and out of the lineup. We’ve got to do what’s best and gives us the best opportunity to win, whatever that may be.”

Pierce expanded the beggars cant’ be choosers mantra at this point of the season.

“If it’s throwing the ball 60 times, fine, if it’s running it 60 times, fine, but we’ve got to find a balance and an identity on offense going forward,” Pierce added.

But from here on in, all eyes turn to Pierce’s culpability in this Silver & Black mess.

Now that he waxed the trio of offensive coaches from the staff, we’ll see Pierce’s true mettle as he navigates the tattered shreds of what’s left of his football team.

Let’s get this out of the way: While coaching can be undoubtedly questioned, the Raiders roster makeup can, too.

Las Vegas is decimated by injury and losing players like defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, defensive end Malcolm Koonce, strong safety Marcus Epps, quarterback Aidan O’Connell, center Andre James due to ailments. Then the team saw left tackle Kolton Miller, backup left tackle Andrus Peat, guard Cody Whitehair, slot cornerback Nate Hobbs, and tight end Harrison Bryant get hurt in Sunday’s loss in Cincinnati.

That has compounded the Raiders’ attempts to forge a successful path forward. And the roster is in general manager Tom Telesco’s hands as the final authority in that regard, not Pierce.

Yet, the on-field play and production is very much a Pierce thing.

Especially considering his football team is nine games deep into this campaign and there’s an obvious void in terms of identity. That’s football blasphemy at this juncture of a football season, really.

It certainly seems the Raiders have an identity, albeit not one Pierce wanted.

“Well listen, I mean the last five games, we’d come out the gate like bulls, right? We’re coming out scoring opening possessions, going down the field, second possession pretty good and then we kind of like hit a brick wall,” the head coach said. “And as you’re watching, three-and-outs or turnovers show up in those last five games. And it just became apparent that obviously, we weren’t doing enough as a staff and as a team to overcome our mistakes and downfalls. And obviously again, I’m going to go back to it, we had plenty of opportunities, either in the red zone or a turnover, a big play on special teams to create those opportunities for our team to win.”

The hiatus should do Las Vegas some good.

A return to form in terms of avoiding mental lapses will help Pierce.

Once a very disciplined football team that avoided flags with Pierce in charge, the Raiders five-game skid is rife with penalties. Las Vegas has 36 total accepted penalties going against it for 284 yards during that span. In the first four games of the season, the infraction count read: 17 accepted penalties for 133 yards. The total of 53 penalties to the tune of 417 yards puts the Raiders at 21st in the league in terms of infractions and 19th in penalty yardage.

Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

But that’s well within Pierce’s control and he’s got to be the one to quell that. He’s got the player’s backing despite a 2-7 mark and this isn’t a case where Raiders checked out and gave up on his predecessor Josh McDaniels.

That said, with the scapegoats for a floundering offense are gone. Turner and Philbin replace them, but they too were already on staff in different roles (Turner as pass game coordinator, Philbin as senior advisor to the offense). Pierce could’ve picked tabbed them to do what they’re doing now on an interim basis all the way back in February before the hiring of Getsy and Cregg.

But with the replacements now set, the burning heat will continue to smolder on the head coach if the losses continue to stack.