Coach Antonio Pierce has taken over as the full-time head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders.
After a 5-4 stint as the interim coach, Pierce earned the respect of his players, inspiring them to play winning football down the stretch.
While they came up short of the postseason, the culture Pierce built should encourage Raider Nation about the future.
Now, Pierce wants to see his team grow into a consistent winner. The Raiders have not had back-to-back winning seasons since 2001 and 2002, and have only had two winning seasons in the last decade.We have to win the division first; we have to knock off the team in red,” Pierce said, referring to the Kansas City Chiefs. “They’ve been dominating for seven years. We have to knock off the head of the snake. 15. We have to do that first. Then we get to the playoffs, with our style of play and their effort, their energy; I think Maxx will tell you this: end of the season, they could have kept playing. We weren’t done in Week 17.
We have to win the division first; we have to knock off the team in red,” Pierce said, referring to the Kansas City Chiefs. “They’ve been dominating for seven years. We have to knock off the head of the snake. 15. We have to do that first. Then we get to the playoffs, with our style of play and their effort, their energy; I think Maxx will tell you this: end of the season, they could have kept playing. We weren’t done in Week 17.
We looked around like: ‘That’s it? What do we do next?’ We were just hanging out in the hallway like: ‘Guess we have to go home, they’re telling us to go home.’ These guys still wanted to go. It was about how we prepared, I think, throughout the week. Keeping them fresh, not having long meetings, listening to the players.”
Pierce then explained what he felt separated him as a coach from other coaches in the league.
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