The Las Vegas Raiders came away one point shy of a preseason victory over the weekend as they dropped an exhibition to the Minnesota Vikings, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't much to worry about.
Both quarterbacks did some good things and engineered scoring drives, pouring more fuel on the fire of this competition at hand.
While Pierce had some positives in regards to the offense after the game, I want to rewind just a couple of days and remind fans of a few choice words he had about his offense, as a whole:
“We're probably not going to be, to be honest, a juggernaut offense," Pierce said. "Would I love to be? Yeah. To sit here and say we're going to score 30 points a game, that's not realistic.”
Antonio Pierce's comments might be blunt, but he's not at all wrong
On one hand, Pierce's comments might not sit well with Raiders fans. That's not what you want to hear about your offense, especially considering there are weapons to work with. Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, Tre Tucker, Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer aren't just some guys.
Also, this is a Raiders team that put up 63 points on the Chargers less than a year ago. Let's not act like they can't score points, because they can.
To make it in today's NFL, you have to score points. It's all about scoring points. Forget the "defense wins championships" mantra. You need to score points to win in this league, period.
If Pierce wanted to make a more fitting statement, he could have said something like, "We want to be an explosive offense, and we'll continue working toward that goal."
Instead, he all but downright canceled out the idea completely. It doesn't exactly send an inspiring message to your team.
Antonio Pierce's comments shed brutally-honest light on quarterback situation
Now, despite taking an inadvertent shot at his offense with the above comments, Pierce's words do shed some light on the situation at hand: the Raiders don't know who their starting quarterback is, and they likely don't have a franchise quarterback, either.
A lot of teams can say differently. A lot of teams do know who their franchise quarterback is and are way beyond having a quarterback competition or controversy. Las Vegas, meanwhile, can't say the same. Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew are a pair of C-level quarterbacks, at this stage, and the Raiders will have to simply do the best they can with what they have.
It's almost a guarantee that, next year, Vegas will be in on a first-round quarterback.
Even though Adams is still one of the NFL's elite receivers, and Meyers is a strong WR2, there isn't much hope being spread about the quarterback position. And, even though Bowers has all the tools to be a top-3 tight end in this league, he is still a rookie.
So, was Pierce wrong about what he said? Of course not. The Raiders aren't an explosive offense -- yet.
This is the NFL, and anything can happen. So, while there's some truth to what the head coach said, he also must reiterate his faith in that locker room. And, that shouldn't be hard to do. Pierce has been a coach which players love to play for and will rally around, so if there was indeed any miscommunication with those comments, it will surely be cleared up in no time.