One of the biggest reasons the Raiders benched quarterback Gardner Minshew for Aidan O’Connell was Minshew’s penchant for turnovers.
Minshew’s issue with them was a significant factor once again when he had to enter Sunday’s game after O’Connell suffered a thumb injury, as Minshew threw three picks and lost a fumble in the 20-15 loss.
With O’Connell set to miss at least four weeks while on injured reserve, Minshew is back in line to start for Las Vegas. And that means head coach Antonio Pierce needs the quarterback to better protect the football.
“He’s got to get out of his own head,” Pierce said in his Monday press conference. “I mean, he’s a quarterback, he’s been in this league, he understands it. Obviously, we’ve encouraged him. Very positive on the sideline with everything that was going on yesterday. Our team was like, no blinking. That’s all he kept hearing on the sideline dealing with adversity.
“I thought our defense did a good job of responding even on a sudden change they did score, but throughout the game we kept fighting. Even at the end of the game when we had a chance to get another stop, we did. Gave the offense the ball again with less than two minutes to see if we can go ahead for the win.”
While that’s true, Minshew threw his third interception to effectively end the game on the third play of the possession.
In six games this season, Minshew has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,168 yards with four touchdowns and a league-high eight interceptions. He’s also lost two fumbles.
