The Raiders entered Sunday 2-2 under interim head coach Antonio Pierce and were looking to continue some positive vibes after their bye.
Instead, the team lost 3-0 to Minnesota in the lowest-scoring indoor game in league history. Las Vegas’ offense managed just 202 yards, eight first downs, and was 3-of-14 on third down. The club averaged just 3.8 yards per play.
“No excuse there, it is shocking,” Pierce said in his postgame press conference of the team’s offensive regression. “Plenty of time to prepare for the opponent. We knew what they did, nothing new. Just, again, poor coaching, poor performance by the players. Starts with myself.”
Could Las Vegas turn back to Jimmy Garoppolo to get something positive going on offense? Pierce said the Raiders will evaluate everything. But Pierce noted he wasn’t inclined to make that change during the game.
“I think you can look at both teams how they were looking at it, right?” Pierce said. “But for us, we were moving the ball, there was opportunities — [negated by] penalties, turnovers — for us to put points on the board. And that just wasn’t the quarterback. That’s why I said it was the offense.
“It’s easy to point the finger at the quarterback, and obviously we will look at that as we go forward. But we knew what we got when we put Aidan at quarterback, it was going to be some ups and downs, and this was not one of our better performances.”
O’Connell finished the game 21-of-32 for 171 yards with an interception. The Raiders went three-and-out five times.
Las Vegas doesn’t have much time to sulk over the loss, as the club will host the Chargers on Thursday night this week.