For three straight weeks following the Raiders bye, their defense has played the most inspiring football they’ve played in years. That is due in no small part to the leadership of interim head coach Antonio Pierce.
The first of those games ended with a 3-0 loss to the Vikings. The last two have resulted in huge wins over division rivals. The first a lopsided 63-21 win over the Chargers and Christmas Day it was a massive 20-13 win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead.
Afterward, you can see just how much this means to Pierce and why his players play so hard for him. He approached Tracy Wolfson already with tears in his eyes. And even the usual softball questions in the postgame on-field interview were getting him choked up.
#Raiders HC Antonio Pierce trying to answer questions thru tears postgame. pic.twitter.com/zBwm3BMTvq
— Levi Damien (@LeviDamien) December 25, 2023
Pierce took over for Josh McDaniels in Week nine and the Raiders have been a completely different team since then. They went 2-0 out the gates and are now 4-3 under Pierce. None bigger than coming away with the rare win at Arrowhead against the bitter rival Chiefs.
There are a lot of people calling for Pierce to get the job permanently and with every win and moment like this, it would seem to be more and more hard for Mark Davis to deny him a shot.