If you have a team meeting and air grievances against your head coach and that coach is fired shortly after, you better be prepared for Sunday’s game.
The Las Vegas Raiders looked reborn a few days after firing Josh McDaniels.
The Raiders cleaned house. They fired their head coach and general manager Dave Ziegler and benched quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. This is one of the few times a team makes midseason changes to a franchise’s three most important spots. It worked, for at least a week.
Las Vegas defeated the New York Giants 30-6. The game was never competitive. The Raiders looked like a team hoping that their recently fired and unpopular coach was watching at home.
The Raiders players and Even coaches, according to reports blasted McDaniels in an infamous team meeting. Her performance on Sunday was a direct message to her fired coach.
Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (16) celebrates his touchdown with wide receiver Davante Adams (17) in the team’s victory over the Giants. (AP Photo/John Locher) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Raiders play very well against Giants
Players who had terrible seasons at McDaniels have turned things around. Josh Jacobs had two touchdowns in the first half. Hunter Renfrow, completely forgotten after McDaniels was hired, resurfaced with a few catches. Rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who was passed over by McDaniels a few weeks ago to start for over-the-hill veteran Brian Hoyer, was very sharp. The Raiders looked like a completely different team.
A lot of this has to do with the Giants having a terrible follow-up to Brian Daboll’s first season as head coach. It didn’t help that Daniel Jones left the game with a knee injury and Tommy DeVito had to replace him. It’s hard to believe that last week the Giants watched as DeVito had a minus-one yard pass after entering the game midway through the second quarter, placed Tyrod Taylor on injured reserve and still didn’t add a better backup option, but exactly that happened.
The Jones injury doesn’t explain why the Giants’ defense was torched. Rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell was 9 of 10 for 135 yards in the first half. Jacobs rushed for 85 yards in the first half. He hadn’t scored more than 77 points in a complete game all season before Sunday.
The Raiders had not scored more than 21 points in a game all season before Sunday. They had 24 points at halftime. This reflects poorly on the Giants. It’s probably more of an indictment of McDaniels.
Antonio Pierce gets his first win
In 2021, the Raiders turned to Rich Bisaccia as interim coach after firing Jon Gruden under controversial circumstances. Bisaccia led the Raiders to the playoffs. Instead of seeing if he could continue that momentum, Raiders owner Mark Davis needed a brighter, shinier toy and made the terrible decision to hire McDaniels.
That’s what Davis needs to keep in mind as he watches interim coach Antonio Pierce in the second half of the season. Who knows where the Raiders’ season will lead, but it’s an interview for Pierce.
The Raiders continued to roll in the second half against the Giants. They took a 27-point lead, and Fox said it was the largest lead in a game since Week 2 of the 2017 season. DeVito eventually completed a few passes and the Giants scored to erase the Raiders’ shutout. But it was still the Raiders’ most dominant performance in a long time. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that this happened right after they got rid of a coach who had lost the locker room, just as he did in his first stint as head coach with the Denver Broncos more than a decade ago.
The Raiders are 4-5. It will be difficult for them to make the playoffs, but not impossible. Either way, it looks like they’re going to have a lot more fun the rest of the season.