Any coach would tell you he’d like to take the kind of energy Maxx Crosby has every day, bottle it, and sell it. It’s a nice thought, but just a fantasy, right? A coach couldn’t *really* do that, right? Don’t tell that to Antonio Pierce. That’s what he stated as his goal from day one as Raiders interim head coach.
“What I’d like to see those guys keep doing, and Patrick Graham, let loose. Put your ears back, let the dogs loose,” Pierce said at his introductory press conference back on November 1. “When the Raiders are rolling on defense, you guys see it. It comes through the TV. Maxx Crosby’s energy, I’m trying to match his today. I’ve got to match that for the next 10 to 12 weeks.”
The phrase ‘easier said than done’ comes to mind. After all, if it could be done, you’d think one of the Raiders coaches would have tapped into it at some point over the past five seasons since Crosby joined the team.
As seemingly unlikely as it may have seemed, from all indications, he’s done it.
The Raiders defense is playing on another level. Everything he’s done to get them to step up has worked. They have been the best defense in the NFL over his seven weeks as head coach, holding opponents to a league-low 15.28 points per game.
They’re opportunistic too. Pierce took over a team dead last in turnover differential (-8) with just eight takeaways in their first eight games. They’ve had 13 takeaways in the seven games since and have jumped up to 21st in the league in turnover differential (-3).
This included four defensive touchdowns over the past two weeks. One in a blowout of the Chargers and the other in a big upset win in Kansas City over the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs.
While Pierce is not ready to call them ‘great’, he is seeing his lofty original goal coming to fruition.
“I think you’ve seen our defense match Maxx’s energy and effort and now production, and you’re seeing that,” Pierce said Friday. “At first it was Robert Spillane, okay, now it’s a couple other guys. Now you’re seeing 11 bad boys hunting each and every play. Now it’s a race to the ball, right? I call it roll calling the ball, get 11 hats to the ball, everybody get in the family picture. So, for me it’s very satisfying to see them buy into that of what we talked about the effort and matching your best players. Maxx’s job is to bring all those guys along and keep striving to stay in front, that’s what we want. And when we get that, you get the product that you got on the field.”
It may go without saying that you can’t simply ask and receive Maxx Crosby kind of energy from a player. That player has to be capable of it. As Pierce noted, he saw Spillane step up to try and match that energy all season. But several others have joined the party now as well.
The first was Amik Robertson, who had an interception, a forced fumble, and two pass breakups in Pierce’s first game since taking over as head coach. And it helped the Raiders score over 20 points for the first time this season.
The pass rush certain helped as well with a total of eight sacks. It was, of course, led by Crosby’s three sacks, but also included Malcom Koonce’s first sack of the season. All leading to the team being able to spark up all the cigars Crosby bought after the game.
No one has come up more of late than Crosby’s complement on the opposite end of the defensive line, Malcolm Koonce.
Koonce has put up seven sacks this season — all of which coming over the past seven games. And over the past two big wins, he has five sacks, two of which were the strip variety. One of those forced fumbles was returned for a touchdown by DT John Jenkins.
That was one of four defensive touchdowns the Raiders have had over the past two weeks. That included a Bilal Nichols scoop and score off a fumble and two pick sixes by Jack Jones.
Jones is well known for having been coached by Pierce in high school at Long Beach Poly and college at Arizona State. Clearly, the two are a good fit together as coach and player.
Crosby has been lobbying for Pierce to return as head coach after this season. The fifth year edge rusher has backed that up with his play. And the defense has been setting about to back him up in that endeavor.