Win or Lose, Raiders' Pierce Aims to Build a Mentally Tough Team

Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce was known for his toughness as a player. The Raiders' loss on Sunday proved they still need to work on their mental toughness.

Sep 8, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce watches from the sidelines in the second half against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It is said that teams are usually built in the image their head coach has in mind.

Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco recently said that was the case for this Raiders team. Telesco made it clear the team was being built to match the vision of head coach Antonio Pierce. At 2-3 on the season, the team’s character and mental toughness were challenged this past Sunday against the Denver Broncos.

Pierce noted that the team failed to mentally recover from quarterback Gardner Minshew’s interception, which was returned for a touchdown early in the game. The Raiders nearly took a commanding double-digit lead. He said he hopes the disappointing loss serves as a lesson for the team on the importance of working through adversity.

"Yeah, I hate to use it, but it's a teaching lesson, and it's something that we try to do on the sideline as that was happening,” Pierce said. “You could feel it. It was real. I'm not going to hide from it, right? We could feel the air a little bit from our team and say, 'Guys, it's one play.' And when we really look at that game, probably two series later, we had the ball at the 50-yard line and we had a great opportunity to make a play. We didn't do it. We punted, kept them backed up. 

“And there's so many plays in the game where you can change the momentum and get it back on our side, and we didn't do that, and we have to find a way. And it's not one person. It's not one unit. It's a team doing that collectively. Like I said, the ball is at the 50, no problem. We got them backed up, keep them backed up, and we'll get the ball again. We got to make the best of those opportunities, and that's what it is going forward." 

While the Raiders undoubtedly need to work on their mental toughness, it is worth noting that part of what went into the team’s inability to recover from Minshew’s interception mentally was the team’s overall health. There were plenty of miscues and mistakes by Raiders veteran starters. 

However, the Raiders are also missing numerous players who are critical to their success. Everyone on the team could use improvement when it comes to mental toughness, but the Raiders are incredibly shorthanded. Adversity is one thing; adversity when missing the number of players the Raiders are missing is a different story.

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