Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast: Stacking, the Next Level of Building a Champion

Our latest Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast episode offers a complete recap of the big win.

Las Vegas Raiders Maxx Crosby, Coach Antonio Pierce / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

The Las Vegas Raiders (1-1) are back home in the heat of the desert to host the Carolina Panthers this weekend at the air-conditioned and comfortable confines of Allegiant Stadium.

The Raiders look to parlay their upset win this weekend over the Baltimore Ravens to a win streak with the lowly Panthers coming to town.

Our latest Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast episode offers a complete recap of the big win.

You can watch the entire podcast from the press box below:

Below is the transcript of Antonio Pierce’s press conference on Wednesday.

Q: Jackson Powers-Johnson seems like he's at closer end to getting on the field?

Coach Pierce: Yeah, I mean he was on the field a couple of times in the game, you didn't see him? He was really hyped up and excited. No, he's getting there. Listen, me and him had a good talk Saturday night, Sunday morning. He understands where I'm coming from. I think he's in a good place now, physically, mentally, emotionally. We'll see how this week goes with practice, but if I was a betting man, I hope to see 58 out there."

Q: Now that you've had a couple days to look at film, what does Andy Dalton bring to the table Sunday?

Coach Pierce: "Experience. The good thing about it, we've got a gentleman on our staff who drafted him, knows him very well. We played against Andy [Dalton] actually two years ago as well with New Orleans. So, there's some familiarity with us. Obviously, what are they going to do scheme wise just in a couple of days? He's a vet. I'm sure there's not too much they can't throw at him and ask him to do, but I do expect him to be a little bit more efficient I would think on third down is what their issues were. But looking at a guy who is experienced, that knows how to move the ball, move the chains and somehow, some way, when he gets on the field he makes plays. So, we've got to be savvy and smart there."

Q: A lot of times we ask you about the young guys and you say it's just a matter of when it clicks. I'm sure you expected that sooner rather than later with Brock Bowers being that he was a first round pick. But when did you realize that he was really going to be able to have as big of as an impact as he's had on this offense so far?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, the day he walked in the door. We knew we were getting a blue chipper. I mean, he did it day one at Georgia, when he walked on campus. And he did it each and every game, each and every year. And he got here in rookie minicamp, and he got pads on at training camp and it was like alright, then we slowed him down a little bit because he was pushing himself. And to be honest, I mean we knew what we got, just didn't want to speak on it until he did it. Now it's out there and there's no hiding it. He's a really good football player, he's tough, he loves the game. He doesn't care how he looks, how he talks, he just wants to play ball, and that fits our mentality."

Q: You've talked a lot about starting fast record wise. Maxx Crosby talks a lot about stacking wins. You have two straight home games. Is there an opportunity now do you think to bring that to fruition and make that happen?

Coach Pierce: "Well, we're just excited to be back home. Training camp we were away. Preseason first game we were away. First two games in the regular season we were away. This is a great opportunity for us to come home in front of our family, friends, the fans, Raider Nation, the black hole. I mean to be honest, we're excited. Our guys are extremely excited about this opportunity. We feel like we're going to have a great showing, and we need to put up a great show."

Q: Brock Bowers, you see his work ethic and what he did on the field. You talked the other day about him growing, but when you're in meetings or he's in film, his IQ, was it there? Did it come? Is that still growing? Where's that at as far as what you're impressed with?

Coach Pierce: "Going back to Minnesota, the first preseason game, he was lining up all over the place. He was at wide receiver, he was in the slot, he was at tight end, he was on the line at tight end, he was in the backfield at fullback, and that was early on. Now fast forward to about a month and a half from that standpoint, he's doing a great job just understanding now not just what we want to do offensively, but I think also what the defense is doing. And I think as we start getting into this bad boy even more, I think he'll understand how teams are going to try to take us away, right? Every week we worry about Davante [Adams] getting cloud coverage, right? You got two over one on him. So, I think it's just critical with Luke Steckel and Luke Getsy, they do a great job of just getting them to understand pro football and what comes with the success, right? People will now look at you differently. So, I think just how he handles that, but he's a very, very smart individual. Obviously like I said, he's a football player, man. It comes very easy to him, and he's natural on the grass."

Q: Michael Mayer is another tight end that obviously got a lot done in college. I know you guys are still putting it together offensively, but feels like there's still room for him to be a huge part of this?

Coach Pierce: "I mean all of them. I mean listen, just the way it worked out last week you had two players with nine plus receptions and they had the hot hand. I don't know who it's going to be this week. You hope each and every week somebody else steps up, right? We hope the running game, first and foremost, steps up this week. We'll start there. Then Jakobi [Meyers], then Tre [Tucker]. We haven't gotten the ball to a lot of our guys, and that starts with us on third down. We have to keep the chains moving. We can't get out on some three and outs. We can't have these negative plays on P and 10s. We just have to do a better job of starting a series. And when that happens, now you can spread the ball out. At the end of the day, everybody is not going to walk away with 10 catches and 20 touches, it's not going to happen. It might be Mike's [Michael Mayer] game this week, Brock's [Bowers] game that week. Hell, we might run the ball 70 times. I don't know what it's going to do. Whatever it takes to win, I think our guys are willing to do that, and that's what's most important."

Q: You have a guy like Rob Gronkowski coming out and saying Brock Bowers can be better than he was as a pass catcher. I mean, that's a lot of expectation to put on a kid. Is he the kind of kid that can handle that and embrace that?

Coach Pierce: "I just think that's a hell of compliment, to be honest. I think we'll just leave it at that. I mean, he's got a long way to go. It's two games. He's a good football player, and I think the best thing about Brock [Bowers], he's so humble. He's just humble, right? Again, I don't know if you're going to get a chance to talk to him today, probably not, but he's not going to say much. So, we're just going to play football."

Q: You mentioned the run game, and we talked about it quite a bit, getting it going. Is there going to be a heavy emphasis this week to try to do that in multiple different ways?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, when I come up here, and I say it, I'm not just talking in coaching cliché. We need to run the ball, it needs to be balanced. Right now, we haven't been balanced, and that's really tough on our offensive line. It's tough on our quarterback, because guys are just teeing off. Their in three-point track stances just running laps around our guys. That's not how we want to play football, nor is that how we want it to look. So, I think it's really critical that we – I think first foremost, if there is a negative play, you've just got to stick with it, right? You see teams each and every time, just keep pounding, pounding, pounding away. Then come to the fourth quarter, you break one. I look at the game like this – look at Zamir [White's] last three runs in the game, and hopefully that's what we look like on Sunday."

Q: By emphasis, I meant this week in practice as well?

Coach Pierce: "Oh yeah, without a doubt, yes, sir. I mean, really today is Wednesday, today's our early down days. So, we're really focused on that. But it's not about focusing on it, it's what works. We need to get to what works. We can have all these plays, I can just start throwing darts, too. But what works for the Raiders, what works for the Zamir [White], what works for our offensive line, what are we doing well? Sometimes, scheme, players, all that stuff, let's get to what works well. And I think if we just pull back a little bit, less is more, like I normally say, we can get that done."

Q: Can you take us back to the excitement? Not to say that every game is not as important and exciting, but this is your home opener, head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant stadium. You're planning to play in front of your fans, how much more excitement is on this game?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, you can't tell? I'm serious, we're fired up. We are extremely excited about Sunday at one o'clock. I'm waiting to come out there for pregame, just watch that bad boy rock and roll. I know our players are looking forward to it again. I mean, because we look at it like this, we played two road games - we go to the Chargers and we're in LA, and it was a Raider game, right? And then in the fourth quarter in Baltimore, that place got loud. There were a lot of Raider fans there, they traveled. But now we're at home. We're in our beautiful stadium, it's a great opportunity for us to do what we need to do at home, take care of business, and more importantly for our fans to show up like they've been doing wherever we've been, but now do it at our home place."

Q: Regarding the Maxx Crosby interaction with Gardner Minshew on the sideline, during training camp you talked about how this is a player-ran team. Do you think that it had a lot to do with it, and how important is it for players to speak up in those crucial moments?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, I mean I can go up to Gardner [Minshew] and give him a pep talk too, but it's different when it comes from Maxx Crosby, right? It's different when it comes from a Robert Spillane. Like I said, that is just showing the togetherness of our team. Everything that we worked on in training camp and the offseason, building that bond, building that closeness with one another. 'Hey, I got your back.' Bad play, 'Ok, cool. I got you.' That's what our defense has done a really good job of, not blinking, not flinching. And we're going to get that confidence with our offense. As you can see we've got some really good players here. We just need to do it for four quarters, but I think it's really telling when the leaders of our team just step up like that all on their own, grab a quarterback, which you don't see much,, a defensive player interacting with a quarterback after a negative play, and have that kind of response."

Q: Did you ever have to do that with Eli Manning?

Coach Pierce: "A couple times. He [Eli Manning] threw six picks in one game against Minnesota. I looked at him and said, 'We're good,' and he looked at me and said, 'Yeah.' I said 'This dude is good, he's got a poker face all day, I can't even fool with him.' But yeah, obviously me and Eli had a lot of conversations as well, but when you've got alphas like we do on defense, you expect that. And again like I said, Maxx [Crosby] is trying to become an all-time greatest Raider, and he's got more to go, but it's going to start with leadership and him speaking up because his voice carries a lot of weight. Obviously, his play does everything for us and his energy, but just to see that and see our guys really hold each other accountable I think was really critical at a moment for us when we needed it."

Q: A lot of talk in the offseason was the Raiders need to go get a cornerback. Jakorian Bennett I'm sure heard all that, but it seems like he's really responded to that challenge. What are your thoughts on him through the first two games?

Coach Pierce: "Man, like I said, you could see it was a different look, to be honest, in his eyes when he came back in the spring in April, like 'Ok, he's working hard.' You see him, and at the time we had [Brandon] Facyson here, and he was backing up Facyson and he just slowly kept chopping wood. And then we got in the preseason and he made that play down in Minnesota on the goal line when they went for it on fourth down. And then just each and every day at practice, he's going against Davante [Adams] and Jakobi [Meyers]. You can see the confidence growing. And then I'll be honest it started again last week against the Chargers, they took a shot at him just a couple days ago in Baltimore, did the same thing. And what I love about it is he's not panicking, he's playing the ball, he's trusting his speed, he's trusting his technique, and even better - I'm going to go back to what this bad boy is about with us right now is just how our teammates celebrate and encourage him. That's what keeps building the confidence up. Now listen, he gave up some catches too, but he never flinched. You can't worry about that. No corner in the National Football League has never given up a catch, so I think his ability to respond, play by play, we talk always about not being good [but] being great, and he's really striving for that."

Q: You brought in Tom Coughlin and Marvin Lewis last year. Have there been any cases or examples this year where some of their experience has led into you, and you've applied that in any of the games so far this year?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, I mean I thought last week, it's kind of the same situation. That game almost played out exact same way as Week One. And Marvin [Lewis], I went to him about a question about situational football, third and fourth down and he said, 'AP go with your gut.' It's just things like that you need, like, 'Don't worry, last week is last week. How does this game look? And play it accordingly,' and I think that's huge for me, because you need that little bit of confidence, right? A lot of times you ask a coach, and they'll be like, 'Well coach, whatever you think.' I asked for a reason, like they give me some feedback. And that's what I love about both [Tom] Coughlin and Marvin. Obviously, Marvin is here every day, my phone calls with Coughlin are in the morning, but it's just good when you have that strong voice and presence where they don't worry about what I think or say, they give me the honest answer."

Q: Do you plan on leaning on Marvin Lewis a little bit more this week, considering his past with Andy Dalton?

Coach Pierce: "No, because that was some years ago. I think what we can do is really get into the mindset, the psyche of the quarterback. I mean, he's been away for some time. It's really a scouting report at this point. We're still trying to figure out what Carolina is going to do offensively with Andy [Dalton], which might be different or may not be different than they did with Bryce [Young]."

Q: The offensive line made a big blocking scheme change this offseason as well. The offense as a whole made a scheme change, but that's not as easy as people outside maybe think. Do you think that has been a factor at all in their struggles?

Coach Pierce: "I mean there's always a learning curve, but this is not about learning. This is not mental, this is just technique and fundamentals, right? This is just, I need a little bit of strain. We've just got to do it well enough. We don't have enough runs to even judge our running game off of, it's not even good enough. It's less than 40 runs. It's not good enough, to be honest. So, we'll hammer that again this week, and then at some point, like you said, you've just got to commit to it, right? If it's this week or next week, whenever it comes, you've got to commit to the run and stay with it and trust it. And again, I don't care what running back you are, who you are, most these guys take around what their 15, 20 carry to get going, right? So, we've got to get our guy there, right? He hasn't even hit 10-plus carries yet. It's hard to get a rhythm when you don't touch the ball."

Q: How much of this is about the Raiders and not the team that's coming in?

Coach Pierce: "To be honest, every week is about that. Now, there might be an individual like last week - I'm talking about Lamar Jackson - we had to talk about him for some time, but this one is strictly about the Raiders and Raider Nation, because we're coming home. Obviously, a big victory, emotional victory, but how do we follow that up? How do we handle success? And I always say it, you gentlemen asked me, what do I want this to look like? I want to be consistent each and every week. I don't want to ride this roller coaster. So, I want to come home and I want to see our team be consistent, play at the same level with effort, discipline, the passion that you guys see. And then now we need to play four quarters. We haven't done that yet. We've played a half; we played the fourth quarter. I asked them today, 'Can we just do it for four quarters?' Let's see what that looks like in front of our home crowd."

Q: With that being said, does part of the message today during walkthrough, or maybe Monday, is that quite possibly last week's Raiders or this week's Panthers. Nobody gave the Raiders a shot. Nobody' is giving the Panthers a shot. Keep that in mind when they take the field this week?

Coach Pierce: “We all look at the standings each and every week, and there's shockers each and every week. I know last week, it was us, right? And we don't want to be on that headline. The only thing we can worry about and control is us, and we need to do a better job of being detailed. And that's what we're talking about this week is attention to details. We got enough film, 122 snaps on offense, 123 on defense, almost 50 on special teams. We got enough film to grade and fix all those little miscues. We're not reinviting the wheel this week, right? We're running our stuff, and at some point, you got to do the little things right more than other team.”

Q: For the offensive line, it seemed like in the first half there were some communication breakdowns that might have led to some of the protection issues. Seems like they got that figured out in the second half in Baltimore. Is that something that you worked with them, or that they talked about at halftime? Or what did you see in that area?

Coach Pierce: “That was a problem, communication was a major problem. And then we made a change at guard and that kind of helped us with the communication.”

Q: How deep was your exhale when you saw Maxx Crosby down on the second to last snap and then he was able to get up? And then how is his ankle today?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, I mean, we're all battered and bruised. That was a physical game, but knowing Maxx and you saw we went through last year; I mean, I won’t put nothing past him. We'll slow it down today and see how the week goes.”

Q: What are your thoughts about Divine Deablo and just his pure weight and size over the course of 17 games. Do you think he’s a good size for linebacker?

Coach Pierce: “He's 230, he's a big boy. So, it ain't size. With Deablo, it’s just being consistent with pad level and football positioning. We talked about it, just being consistent in that. When you're a taller linebacker, you tend to always stand up because you want to see everybody, and you got to drop and bend your knees, man, and you got to strike. And we’ve talked about that, he’s got to bring his feet on tackles. There are all the things that we discuss each and every week. I'm sure you guys see it on film. And I think with Deablo, I'm not worried about the weight. It's just really more mentally and just doing it consistently and being that guy, because there's so much good that he puts on film. It's just the negatives are a little glaring at times because they're in the open field and space.”

Q: Robert Spillane had the big turnover on Sunday. I know you've got a lot of things going through your mind on a game day on the sideline, but how fun is that, just to see him fly around and make plays and pick up where he left off last year?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, because I go back to when we signed him, the one negative was that he was horrible in pass coverage. And I think that's now his fourth interception for the Raiders, right? So, he's done a hell of a job. First and foremost, just the leader, a bell cow for our team, blue collar. Whatever we get from Maxx [Crosby] we get at the second level from Spillane, and he's just one of those guys, man. He plays every snap balls to the wall. I mean, he's flying around, he's physical. He's throwing up on the sideline. His face is all red. I'm like, ‘God damn, like he's old school true linebacker.’ You love it. It's good to watch good linebacker play. And obviously, I'm glad he's on our team.

Q: Through two games, only five penalties have been accepted against you. How proud are you that your team is able to play as physically as they are and as disciplined?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, I think that's a credit to our staff, to our players of buying in and just going to our individual periods and taking it in. We talked about that with Baltimore. They were a highly penalized team. We didn't want to be that team. Couldn't beat ourselves. I think just even from the week before, having composure at the end of the game, right? There's a little chippiness out there as well. And just not being that team, not beating ourselves. And I told them, if we stop the turnovers and the penalties and we get off to a fast start, what does this team really look like. Hopefully we see it this weekend.”

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