Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce sheds light on first-quarter mystery involving starter
Last week when the Las Vegas Raiders lost their home opener to the Carolina Panthers, something was showing up on the tape that wasn't showing up against the Los Angeles Chargers or the Baltimore Ravens. It was a very big issue, and head coach Antonio Pierce was not afraid to call the team out on […]
Last week when the Las Vegas Raiders lost their home opener to the Carolina Panthers, something was showing up on the tape that wasn't showing up against the Los Angeles Chargers or the Baltimore Ravens. It was a very big issue, and head coach Antonio Pierce was not afraid to call the team out on it.
When the post-game press conference came last week, Pierce said his players, some of them anyway, were making "business decisions," which means they were playing as hard as they could be, missing tackles or even not trying to tackle at all. And, he wasn't lying.
On Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, we assumed that it was handled in-house like he said it would be. But, when Jack Jones, one of the best players on the defense, didn't play the entire first quarter, fans and media started to guess that he was one of the players Pierce was talking about, based on some of the clips that surfaced on Twitter from the All-22 as well.
After the win, Pierce shed a bit of light on why Jones didn't play until the second quarter.
"That was my decision between me and Jack [Jones]," Pierce said after their 20-16 win over the Browns.
Now, we don't know if that's the exact reason why, but it would make sense. And, it shows that, just because Pierce has known Jones for so long, doesn't mean he is exempt from getting disciplined for not doing what he's supposed to do. And, without Jones, it showed on the Raiders defense, as they struggled a bit.
While he was out, Bennett and Hobbs played as the outside cornerbacks, and Darnay Holmes as the nickel. When Jones was back, the defense started to play much better.
Las Vegas Raiders’ inactives for matchup vs. Cleveland Browns are not a good sign of what’s to come
The Raiders are going to be without quite a few key players.
