Antonio Pierce’s era in the Las Vegas Raiders system has started off fairly slow but they picked it up in Week 2. They have two leaders on both sides of the field. Gardner Minshew takes over for the offense while Maxx Crosby becomes their anchor on defense. Everything worked out and they even beat the heavily-favored Baltimore Ravens-led by Lamar Jackson.
Despite the Raiders’ win, it was not an easy road to getting their desired outcome. Gardner Minshew struggled quite a bit against the Ravens’ secondary and defensive line. However, Maxx Crosby boosted his quarterback after having thrown a pick which gave the ball to Lamar Jackson’s squad. The Raiders defender amped up his signal caller and it all paid off, via SportsCenter.
“He grabbed me and said, ‘Hey, we get your back, dude. We need that Washington State Gardner. We need that.’ And I was like, ‘Man, you are right, dude. Let me see if I can whip that up real quick,” the Raiders quarterback said.
How did the Raiders’ leaders perform?
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew (15) throws the ball against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Minshew was doing well after getting pumped up by Crosby. Antonio Pierce’s squad benefitted from the signal-caller’s effort quite a lot too. The Raiders quarterback ended up outdueling Lamar Jackson as he racked up 276 passing yards on 30 completions out of 38 attempts. He also made up for the interception by leading the squad to a touchdown drive to clutch up the 26-23 win.
Crosby, on the other hand, made life very difficult for the Ravens’ quarterback in the pocket. He sacked Jackson twice in this matchup which prevented them from getting any sort of momentum. Moreover, Antonio Pierce placed him very well in schemes as he notched five tackles with four of them being solo takedowns. These two work phenomenally with each other and the Raiders will surely have a great season with them at the helm.
