Breaking: Antonio Pierce Needs To Check One More Box To Keep Head Coaching Job
The Las Vegas Raiders had themselves a statement win on Thursday Night Football when they embarrassed the Los Angeles Chargers in a 63-21 blitz.
The Raiders led from wire-to-wire, notching a victory over an AFC West rival, much to the delight of the Silver and Black faithful. The beatdown was so bad that Los Angeles ended up firing general Tom Telesco and head coach Brandon Staley.
Meanwhile, Antonio Pierce strengthened his case to keep the head coaching job in Las Vegas. Pierce has clearly won over the players and staff and looks like a frontrunner when the offseason begins.
In an appearance on the JT The Brick Show, Vic Tafur of The Athletic revealed what Pierce needs to do to keep the job, as transcribed by Raidersbeat.com:
“Last night was big for [Antonio Pierce]. It was a national TV statement. They dominated and you saw Mark Davis having a ball up in the box. He was laughing and drinking 10 waters and covering his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was watching. So it was definitely a huge statement game for Antonio.
“Now they’ve got three games left and he’s talked about the Chiefs, and they had them on the ropes last time and back in KC last year. If they can beat the Chiefs somehow, I think he’s got it. You can’t announce it officially because you have to go through the process in the offseason. But if [Pierce] beats the Chiefs, he’s the guy.”
The Kansas City Chiefs have had the Raiders’ number over the years, and Mark Davis would surely love to beat another divisional rival this season. Kansas City has been vulnerable this year because of their lack of receiving options, so there’s definitely a chance that Las Vegas can pull off an upset.
Aiden O’Connell has been solid as the starting quarterback, though the defense has been the most impressive part of the team since Pierce took over as interim head coach. Although defending an Andy Reid offense is no easy task, the Raiders have proven they can hang with most teams.
Davante Adams believes players have rallied around Antonio Pierce
Davante Adams hasn’t been shy about expressing his frustrations this season, so he must’ve been relieved to see the Raiders pick up a win and snap their three-game losing streak.
He credited Pierce for staying the course and added that he thinks the players have rallied around him.
Raiders’ blowout win over Chargers was least-watched TNF game of season
TNF ratings are still way up on the season, averaging 12.07 million viewers.
The Las Vegas Raiders’ 61-23 win over the Los Angeles Chargers during Thursday Night Football was so bad that it cost Brandon Staly his job.
It also didn’t do Prime Video any favors either.
Per Sports Media Watch, the 42-point blowout averaged a 3.9 rating and 7.98 million viewers on Amazon, which makes it the lowest-rated and least-watched TNF game of the season so far.
Those numbers ended up coming in under the Black Friday game between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, which averaged a 4.0 rating and 9.61 million viewers. It also garnered a smaller audience than the Week 9 game between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears, which averaged 9.56 million.
SMW also noted that the Raiders-Chargers game delivered the fifth-smallest audience of the 2023 NFL season, defeating only the early morning International Series games on NFL Network.
Don’t feel too bad for Amazon. TNF is still having a very strong 2023 NFL season so far, averaging 12.07 million viewers (up 25% from this point last year). Viewership is also up 17% in the coveted adult 18-49 demo and 14% in the men 18-34 demo.
Al Michaels has certainly had to deal with his fair share of stinkers this season but the overall slate has been better than the initial Prime Video season. Even analyst Kirk Herbstreit admits that the product isn’t quite on the same level as what NFL audiences are used to on the weekends, but the production has been top-notch and Amazon has acquitted itself as a legitimate NFL broadcaster, even if some of the games themselves aren’t worth watching.
