The Raiders pulled off an impressive comeback in the final minutes of Sunday’s game in Baltimore as they went from 10 points down to 26-23 winners over the Ravens, but head coach Antonio Pierce isn’t focusing on the way things ended.
Pierce said on Monday that Sunday’s fourth quarter effort is “what it needs to look like for all four quarters.” On Sunday, the Raiders punted on all three of their first quarter possessions before turning the ball over in the second quarter and they didn’t make it into the end zone until there were less than three minutes left in the third quarter.
Pierce wants the Raiders to make sure they don’t repeat that kind of effort by easing up as they move toward a Week Three game against the hapless Panthers.
“We’ve got a lot of things that we need to correct,” Pierce said, via Mark Anderson of the Associated Press. “It was a win yesterday, but there were a lot of things in that first quarter that were ugly, in that first half that were ugly and in that third quarter that were ugly. We’re not worried about the Panthers. We’ve got to fix the Raiders.”
One thing the Raiders can emulate from the fourth quarter in Baltimore is putting the ball in the hands of wide receiver Davante Adams and tight end Brock Bowers. The team has not run the ball well, but Adams and Bowers overwhelmed the Ravens down the stretch and getting them more involved earlier in games could help open other things up as defenses try to keep those two from running wild.