Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce is getting hammered by analysts for his decision to punt on fourth-and-1 down 16-10 to the Los Angeles Chargers. Even his quarterback, Gardner Minshew, questioned Pierce’s decision to punt late in the game.
Pierce was questioned about how he used his timeouts in the Raiders’ preseason loss to the Minnesota Vikings. He made a bigger blunder in Week 1 in the Raiders’ 22-10 loss to the Chargers.
A questionable decision by Antonio Pierce
With the ball at the Los Angeles 43-yard line, Pierce wanted to pin the Chargers deep. They did, with the ball eventually landing at the Chargers 8-yard line. A few plays later Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins would scamper for a 61-yard touchdown to seal the video in Jim Harbaugh’s debut with Los Angeles.
According to the analytics department of ESPN, the Raiders had a 19.1% chance of winning if they punted. They had a 24.8% chance of winning if they went for it.
The Las Vegas Raiders were put into a bad situation by Pierce
Ted Nguyen with The Athletic called Pierce’s decision the worst decision on Week 1, and thinks it could be the worst coaching decision anyone will make this season:
Speaking of the Raiders, head coach Antonio Pierce made one of the worst decisions we’ll (probably) see this season when he chose to punt the ball in Chargers territory on fourth-and-1, down by six points with 7:15 remaining in the game.
I get that Pierce wanted to play the field position game but the defense was tiring at that point. Pierce cited the Raiders’ inability to convert on short yardage earlier in the game when asked about the decision but the bottom line is at some point you have to hope your offense can do it.
As Nguyen points out, even if the Chargers had to punt, the Raiders would still need to convert on their next offensive drive. The Raiders problem had better odds to pick up one yard on that play than convert on the next drive.
Pierce is making rookie mistakes
Pierce is making rookie mistakes as the decision-maker in Las Vegas. While he was unhappy with the roster new general manager Tom Telesco gave him this season, especially at quarterback, Pierce has no excuse to defend himself in losses when he makes critical errors in key situations.
Pierce doesn’t have any easy coaching matchup in Week 2. The Raiders will face John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
