Antonio Pierce has been the Raiders interim head coach for five weeks now, and the team has gone 2-2. What those games have told us about Pierce and the Raiders is hard to say.
Those four games started as well as you could hope for. They were 2-0 and looking reinvigorated with Josh McDaniels gone. There was an energy in the locker room you hadn’t felt during McDaniels’ tenure as head coach.
That inspiration led to the offense scoring over 20 points for the first time this season in a dominant 30-6 win over the Giants in Week 9. It was followed up with a hard-fought 16-12 win over the Jets.
Those wins had the Raiders back to .500 on the season at 5-5 and showing up among teams “in the hunt” for the playoffs.
They have since lost to the Dolphins in Miami and at home to the Chiefs.
The thing is, you can’t really place a judgment on this team or the job that Pierce is doing based on what we’ve seen so far.
The Raiders beat two very bad New York teams and lost to two of the top teams in the AFC. So, essentially they haven’t won a game they should have lost or lost a game they should have won.
The Raiders have five more games to try to get an idea of what kind of team they have and what kind of coach Pierce could be. We know he can inspire his players. But does he have the goods for the myriad other responsibilities that fall on the shoulders of a head coach?
Most of the rest of the Raiders schedule is what you might call winnable games.
Week 14 vs. Vikings (6-6): Minnesota is 6-6 after losing two straight.
Week 15 vs. Chargers (5-7): L.A. has the same 5-7 record as the Raiders and had lost three straight before pulling out an ugly 6-0 win over a hapless Patriots team last week.
Week 16 at Chiefs (8-4): KC beat the Raiders last week but has also lost three of their last five, so they’re not unbeatable.
Week 17 at Colts (7-5): Indy is on a four-game winning streak, but two of those were against the Panthers and Patriots. Before those wins, the Colts had lost three straight.
Week 18 vs. Broncos (6-6): Denver had been one of the hottest teams in football, winning five straight prior to their loss in Houston last week. But the Raiders won their first meeting with them in Denver. This one is in Vegas.
It’s crazy that as winnable as these games are, there are also no easy matchups the rest of the way either. What it means is you will be able to get a much better gauge of what this team is with each game.
If they go 3-2, Pierce will finish his season as interim head coach with a winning record (5-4).
In order for the Raiders to finish the season with a winning record, they would need to go 4-1 down the stretch. That may be a tough ask. If Pierce could do it, you would figure he would have earned himself a real shot at keeping the job.
For what it’s worth, Rich Bisaccia had a 7-5 record as interim head coach two seasons ago, including winning four straight to end the season and earn a playoff berth. That wasn’t enough for him to keep the job.
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