Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast Answers Your Questions and Emails

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast features an entire show dedicated to answering your emails and questions.

Las Vegas Raiders QB Aidan O'Connell / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Las Vegas Raiders (2-5) are hosting the Super Bowl champions and a perfect 6-0 Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

The Raiders don’t have time to even think about that. 

This team desperately needs something good to happen. Multiple key players are out due to injury, and the team is struggling to stay afloat as the weather is the storm.

It is never easy to face your arch-nemesis, but facing them when weathering a storm outside of their attack is simply brutal.

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast features an entire show dedicated to answering your emails and questions.

You can watch that podcast in its entirety below:

Below is a transcript of Antonio Pierce’s entire press conference today:

Q: What stood out to you after you got to watch the film?

Coach Pierce: "I thought we did a good job in the run game. I thought we were physical. I thought we were coming off the rock there. I thought the running backs ran hard. I thought the effort throughout the game on all three phases was good. And then the negatives as we talked about, pre-snap penalties there hurting ourselves on drives where we're either getting in field goal range or we're down in the red zone, close to the goal line. And then obviously turnovers."

Q: Following up on that, the Rams were one of the worst defenses in the NFL against the run, you guys were having some success running and some struggles in passing. And you guys threw 44 times and ran 29 times. Is the identity shifting a little bit on the offense because of injury? What's happening on the offense?

Coach Pierce: "Well, the identity is not there. I mean, we want to be physical. We want to run the football. That's not anything that I've ever hidden or not spoken of. I do think as the game goes on and we get down, I think just in human nature you toss the ball around a little bit more and maybe you lose the flow of the game. But when you look at it early on when the game was close and really competitive, we were having our way, even other times with the reverse with Tre Tucker to get down there inside the red zone. So, obviously it's something we need to look at. And I think when you look at teams that's having success right now, just being consistent and staying the course regardless of the outcome. I think a lot of teams, when you look at them and how they're able to sustain success, isthat of being the same team throughout regardless of the score. Obviously, it does change when you're down by 10 or more."

Q: What's the situation with Aidan O'Connell?

Coach Pierce: "I don't have an update yet."

Q: Penalties and turnovers are something that has been rinse and repeat the last three weeks, but it's been a focus that you want to make sure did not happen. How surprised are you that on your watch this is happening consistently?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, the penalties, especially pre snap, I always worry about everything that happens before and afterthe play. In between the play, that'sfootball. You got to work on technique and get better in that sense. The turnovers, it's being careful with the football. We've had 10 turnovers in the last three weeks, seven interceptions and three fumbles, right? We talk about ball security. We do them in every drill to start practice. And then obviously at the quarterback play, we got to make better decisions."

Q: It looked like Luke Getsy moved yesterday [from calling plays on the field to now calling plays in the booth]. What went into that decision and how did you think it worked out?

Coach Pierce: "I thought it was better, and it was my decision."

Q: Are you going to stay with it?

Coach Pierce: "Yes."  

Q: Have you and Tom Telesco talked about bringing in another quarterback?

Coach Pierce: “Well, once we know what's going on with Aidan, I'm sure we're going to have to look at all our options.”

Q: Who would have been the backup for Gardner Minshew yesterday if he got hurt? C

oach Pierce: “It would have been [Tyreik] McAllister. Normally it’s Jakobi Meyers, but he was out.”

Q: Has he worked at all in practice?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, practice squad. I mean, that's different when you're giving the look team. And I don't think we were going to be throwing the ball. I can tell you that much. If we went to the third string quarterback, you already know what's going to happen there.”

Q: Was he Lamar Jackson for the scout team a couple weeks ago?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah. He can run the rock. We know what he could do when he has a ball in his hand. I don't know if we're going to toss it with him. But again, that didn't happen. But that was our emergency quarterback.”

Q: And obviously you do have Carter Bradley on the roster. What have you seen from him? How confident are you if he has to play at some point?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, again, I’m going to go back to what I said. Probably just have to look at all options, what's out there, see what was going on with Aidan once we get the medical reports back.”

Q: When a team's losing, how do you keep them from getting numb to the process and staying hungry to keep working?

Coach Pierce: “Well, we can’t get comfortable with losing. That's first and foremost. And just like these guys are in here today, they're out there working out and doing everything they need to do to get themselves ready to play. We got another big game this week. Again, we get paid to play 17 weeks, right? So, I don't think we went into the season they would win every game. Didn't expect to lose three in a row, but that's where we're at now. At the end of the day, all we can do is worry about now the Kansas City Chiefs, who we know very well. They're coming in here. It's a divisional game. And to answer your question directly, you just got to move on. It's the nature of the beast, right? We got to do better. We got to stop beating ourselves with turnovers, with penalties. When opportunities are there, we have to make them. We're not doing that right now as well, and it's nothing that we like. I'm sure Raider Nation doesn't like, and we got to keep getting better and go to work, just like a lot of teams in National Football League. We got to get better, and we can't use no excuses for injuries or this, or that, or quarterback, OC, head coach. We are all involved in this as an organization, as staff and players. We got to stick together and not really get into the outside noise and let everybody pick us apart. That's what the whole offseason is about, because I knew at some point we'll get into this dark moment, and it's a dark moment for us right now. We got to get out.”  

Q: How tough has this been with the expectations you had going into the season into where it's at right now?

Coach Pierce: “I'll be honest, I didn't expect to be 2-5. I'd like to see that flipped. But at the end of the day, you've got to live in reality, and that's what we're dealing with. Again, like I said, a lot of the league is dealing with the same stuff – injuries, turnovers, just being inconsistent. All of us can get better, myself included. And I think as we keep going through this, there'sstill a lot of football left. The season's not over. We're not tanking. We're not trying to lose games to do anything better for the future. Hell, we're trying to be the best team we can. And right now, we're not a good team."

Q: Nate Hobbs had a big fourth down stop and then obviously the interception yesterday. What did you see out of him?

Coach Pierce: "It was good. I thought Nate [Hobbs] did a good job overall. Just his run fits, coverage. He's been pretty consistent. It was good to see him show up in critical moments like that, and then that interception was huge. I wish he could have gotten into the end zone there, but obviously he put our offense in a position to score. Each and every week, what we see from Nate issomebody who's just getting better and better. Obviously, much better when he's inside for us because of his physicality."

Q: You said you don't want the team to get comfortable with losing. Did you like their demeanor after the game on the flight home, this morning, everything?

Coach Pierce: "Everybody was pissed off. But I like their demeanor today, we're working. Everybody's in here to work. Nobody's missing work today. So, that's really good just to see our guys be consistent and steady. Like I told them, at the end of the day, we all signed up for this game, man. It's tough, it's hard. It's not easy to win in the National Football League. It's easy to get poked at, like we are now and myself now when you lose, but we can't worry about that. We can't flinch, we can't blink. We've just got to go to work. Got to go to work. That's all I know how to do is work. Get better each and every day and find a way to get better. Right now, we're not a good football team."

Q: Yesterday, you praised Brock Bowers for what he was able to do. But you also said it can't all just be the Brock Bowers show. How much of an asserted effort do you think you and the rest of the offense are going to be putting into making sure that it's as evenly distributed as possible moving forward?

Coach Pierce: "Well, I don't think there's an issue with it being distributed. You've got to get the ball there and we've got to get open. We've got to get off of DBs and find a way to get open. We've got to protect. Everything goesinto it, it's not only the quarterback, not only the OC and the head coach. All 11, everybody involved in the game plan has got to do their part throughout. And then you've got to execute. I mean, there were opportunities there to get Tre Tucker getting the ball down the field, it didn't happen, right? So, just keep going back to it, man. Keep going, keep calling, drawing it up, and hopefully we can let that ball rip and get it down the field. I think what will really help with Brock and our offense is just getting the running game going and being consistent for four quarters."

Q: When people talk about tanking, isn't that almost disrespectful?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, it's human nature when you're not in a building doing the work like we do every day, right? Everybody's in this building, most of the coaches are in this building at five or six o'clock this morning, like we do every Monday. And I mean, we're not in here picking our fingers and just hanging out, right? We're trying to figure out a way to grind it out to the best of our ability with what we have. And our players are doing the exact same thing. So, yeah, you hear it, and I ain't going to lie, I address it. I hear it, but it's BS, and that's cool. But like I said, until we go out there and we prove it on the grass, I mean, people can keep talking about it. So, that's what I told our coaches this morning, and when I go with the team, I'll tell them the same."

Q: The Rams converted only two third downs yesterday. You talked about some of the field position, is that something where you think if you clean up turnovers and really unleash this defense where the other team has to drive the entire field, we can really start to see what this defense can be?

Coach Pierce: "I think one of the bright spots for our defense this year has been third down. If you look at each and every game, we've been we've been right there. I don't know where we're ranked in the National Football League, but I'm assuming in the top. We've done a good job of that. A lot of that goes into when you get them off on third down, that conversion into special teams, right? And we need to get more positive yards with our returners and get 10 plus yards, so we give better field position for our offense. Because I’ve said it before, we like to play that game, full court defense, half-court offense, and our defense does a good job. Patrick Graham and Rob Ryan, those guys that come up with the third down and short yardage report do a really good job of being detailed and dialed in. And our players really stood out yesterday on doing that, especially in short yardage."

Q: If Gardner Minshew is the quarterback moving forward based off whatever happens with Aidan O'Connell, how do you stop him from allowing one turnover to turn into two into four? How does he get out of his own head?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, I think you said it best, right? He's got to get out of his own head. I mean, he's a quarterback, he's been in this league, he understands it. Obviously, we've encouraged him. Very positive on the sideline with everything that was going on yesterday. Our team was like, no blinking. That's all he kept hearing on the sideline dealing with adversity. I thought our defense did a good job of responding even on a sudden change they did score, but throughout the game we kept fighting. Even at the end of the game when we had a chance to get another stop, we did. Gave the offense the ball again with less than two minutes to see if we can go ahead for the win.”

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