LAS VEGAS — Antonio Pierce angrily rocked back and forth for more than five minutes at the postgame podium, the Las Vegas Raiders coach searching for answers in the wake of his team’s stunning 36-22 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Pierce was sure of one thing: his team did not show up for its home opener — and he went in on some unnamed players.
“As the game went on,” Pierce said, “I think there was definitely some individuals that made business decisions. And we’ll make business decisions going forward as well.
“We got our ass whupped…I would have booed us, too.”
Given what was on the table — a festive home opener after last week’s emotional comeback win at the Baltimore Ravens, the heretofore winless Panthers having benched their former No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young in favor of 14th-year veteran quarterback Andy Dalton, the Raiders offense having seemingly caught up with its opportunistic defense — this loss, to longtime observers, was comparable to several embarrassing defeats in recent memory.
From losing to the Indianapolis Colts and high school coach Jeff Saturday in 2022 in his first game — the fallout of which led to then-Raiders QB Derek Carr crying at the podium — to falling to Baker Mayfield two days after he joined the Los Angeles Rams later that same season, to last season’s loss at the Chicago Bears, who started undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent at quarterback.
The difference? These Raiders were thoroughly dominated by Dalton and the Panthers.
“We’ve got a lot of people that have to look in the mirror,” said Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, who was severely hampered by a high-ankle sprain to his left ankle, suffered on the second-to-last play of the Raiders’ win at Baltimore, and finished with just three tackles and a pass defensed.
“Everybody’s got to continue getting better. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a wake-up call, you know what I mean? We’ve got to be better. Period…simple as that.”
The Raiders surrendered 437 total yards to Dalton and Co., who also dominated the time of possession — 36:02 to 23:58. Offensively, only 55 of Las Vegas’ 331 offensive yards came on the ground. And the Raiders trailed by as much as 33-7 early in the fourth quarter.
Raiders receiver Davante Adams seemed puzzled by Pierce’s claim of players making “business decisions” late in the game.
“I feel like, I don’t know, this is tough for me to identify that,” said Adams, who had four catches, on nine targets, for 40 yards. “I’m not sure.”
Said Crosby: “I don’t know. There’s a lot of things. You’ve got to watch the film. Just wasn’t good enough. Just a bad loss. I mean, s—y. We didn’t play our best football.”
Meanwhile, Pierce said not much should be gleaned from his replacing starting quarterback Gardner Minshew with Aidan O’Connell with 4:47 to play and Las Vegas trailing 36-15.
“The game was kind of out of hand and we’ve got two quarterbacks that battled,” Pierce said in reference to the training camp competition, eventually won by Minshew.
“Let the other guy go in there and see what he can do for a little bit.”
O’Connell led the Raiders on a 13-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, completing nine of 12 passes for 82 yards, including an 8-yard TD to Tre Tucker, with another pass that was nearly intercepted.
Minshew, meanwhile, passed for 214 yards in completing 18 of 28 attempts with a 13-yard TD pass to Jakobi Meyers and an interception.
“It sucks, obviously, especially at home,” O’Connell said. “You wanted to take another step forward and, hopefully, get a win here, but we’re going to bounce back. Good thing about football is there’s always the game next week.”