Last month, as the Raiders were about to host the Giants in what would be the head coaching debut of Antonio Pierce, I reached out to some Giants people who were closely associated with Pierce when he was a Giants linebacker.
Pierce had just been named the Raiders interim coach after they fired Josh McDaniels.
The first call I made was to former Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, who knows a thing or two about coaching, and he was extremely bullish on Pierce’s ability to become an excellent head coach.
Seven games later, Pierce is 4-3 as the Raiders head coach and, despite the fact he had never been a head coach before this, he’s revitalized, energized and stabilized what had been a dysfunctional franchise.
That’s why it’s time to remove the “interim’’ label in front of “head coach’’ for him.
Pierce’s sample size as a head coach is enough to have shown he has what it takes to lead a team — not just a linebacker room as a position coach.
His Raiders, fresh off a win last week over the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, the perennial owners of the AFC West title, play at the Colts on Sunday. With a 7-8 record Las Vegas is not out of a playoff chase, even though it needs help. In fact, the Raiders still have a scant chance to win the division.
The Raiders were a dead team walking when McDaniels was fired and Pierce was elevated.
Under McDaniels, they were 3-5 and averaging 15.8 points per game on offense while giving up an average of 23.4 points on defense. Under Pierce, they’re 4-3 and averaging 22.7 points scored and 15.3 points allowed.
Pierce, who has never been a wallflower, has publicly stumped for himself as the long-term answer for Raiders owner Mark Davis.
“My résumé is on the grass,’’ Pierce told reporters this week. “What do you want? I can put up a fancy presentation, I’ve seen that before. I can put up stats, I can put up my résumé, but the best thing that happened for me was an opportunity. The worst day I was going to be as a head coach was my first day. And each day is my job and I really take pride in growing each and every day to get better. No different than when I was a player to get better.
“And by the end, you look at it, whatever your career was and whatever my coaching careers is, and you sit there and say, ‘Look, this is what he was.’ And hopefully Mark Davis sees improvement and growth within our team. He sees the style and play that he wants from the Raiders. He sees a fan base that’s behind us. He sees a building that loves coming to work and loves being here. At the end of the day, we got to win. And right now, my record, our record, is 4-3.”
One of the things Pierce has done is re-establish running back Josh Jacobs as the focal point of the offense. In the Raiders’ first eight games under McDaniels, Jacobs had 20 or more carries just twice. In the five games he’s been on the active roster with Pierce in charge, Jacobs has eclipsed 20 carries three times already.
Defensively, the week before McDaniels was fired, the Raiders allowed 30 points to the Bears who were quarterbacked by Tyson Bagent, an undrafted free agent rookie from a Division II college. Under Pierce, they’ve allowed more than 22 points just once, to the Chiefs.
Michael Strahan, a Giants teammate of Pierce’s and now a Fox Sports commentator, was emphatic in his praise for Pierce on the air last week, calling out the “incredible job with the Raiders” his former teammate has done.
“This is not with his staff; he inherited this staff from Josh McDaniels when he was coaching there,’’ Strahan reasoned. “I would love to see Antonio Pierce have the opportunity to coach this Raiders team as the permanent head coach. I think he deserves it.’’
Strahan called the win over Kansas City last week “a statement toward how great he is as a coach and as a motivator and as a leader of men, which is what he did for me with the Giants and what he’s doing now as a coach for the Raiders.”
