The Las Vegas Raiders were beaten heavily by the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, drawing the ire of head coach Antonio Pierce in his postgame press conference.
Pierce lamented his players’ performance, telling reporters that some of them made “business decisions” on the field. He also said that players who made those decisions were putting their jobs on the line.
“They didn’t show up,” Pierce said. “I think as the game went on – I don’t think it was the team – there were definitely some individuals making business decisions. And we’ll continue to make business decisions in the future.”
Raiders coach Antonio Pierce after Sunday’s loss.
“I think as the game went on – I don’t think it was the team – there were definitely some individuals making business decisions. And we’ll continue to make business decisions in the future.”pic.twitter.com/CPTinIi49J
— Awful Announcement (@awfulannouncing) 23 September 2024
Pierce didn’t name any names. And we won’t speculate about the job security of individual players based on Pierce’s insinuations. But it’s fair to say that the Raiders, individually and as a whole, had one of their worst performances of the NFL season on Sunday.
Once pathetic Panthers offense burns against Raiders
The Panthers entered Sunday in turmoil after scoring just a single touchdown and 13 total points in losses to the Saints and Chargers to start the season, and their offense was the worst in football.
On Monday, they benched quarterback and former No. 1 draft pick Bryce Young and brought in experienced backup Andy Dalton instead. In the 36-22 win over the Raiders, Dalton recalled his former Pro Bowl form (most recently with the Bengals in 2016) and put on one of the best passing performances of the young NFL season.
Dalton completed 70% of his passes for 319 yards, scored three touchdowns and didn’t concede a single turnover against a helpless Raiders defense. It was the first time this season that an NFL quarterback threw 300 yards and three touchdowns in a single game. The Panthers fielded a 100-yard rusher in Chuba Hubbard (114 yards) and a 100-yard receiver in Diontae Johnson (122 yards, 1 TD).
Yes, they had a new quarterback. But this was the Panthers’ best scoring performance since 2022 and only the second time since the start of the 2023 season that they scored 30 or more points. Dalton was a dramatic improvement over Young, but the Raiders offered little resistance.
The Raiders’ offense wasn’t much better. Las Vegas scored 15 meaningless points in the fourth quarter. But by the time the Panthers took a 33-7 lead early in the fourth quarter, the game was already over. And all of this happened at a Raiders home game.
“That’s obviously not good enough,” Pierce said. “The crowd was ready. You have to appreciate the crowd. Everyone did their part. They showed up. We didn’t.”
“The plan wasn’t good enough. … What we thought would work didn’t work. We didn’t execute on the field. And we didn’t put in the effort that we showed in previous games. … We got our asses kicked.”
Raiders executives and Pro Bowlers Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby were both asked for their thoughts on Pierce’s comment about “business decisions.” Neither would speculate on which players Pierce was referring to.
“I feel like, I don’t know – it’s hard for me to identify that,” Adams said, according to ESPN. “I’m not sure.”
Crosby went into more detail, but also did not name any names.
“I don’t know,” Crosby said. “There’s a lot of things. You have to look at the film. It just wasn’t good enough. Just a bad loss. I mean, sucked. We didn’t play our best football. …
“We have a lot of guys that need to look in the mirror. Everyone needs to keep getting better. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a wake-up call, you know what I mean? We need to get better.”
Pierce, a former NFL linebacker, is in his first full-time season as the Raiders’ head coach after earning the job with an interim title in nine games last season. He earned the job in part because of his good relationships and ability to handle players.
Sunday marks a low point in his tenure and the first clear sign of turmoil in the locker room since Pierce took the helm. How he and the Raiders respond going forward will shape his tenure in Las Vegas.
