Antonio Pierce's honeymoon period as the Raiders' full-time head coach didn't last long.
Pierce was heavily criticized for choosing to punt on fourth down and one yardage midway through the fourth quarter in the Raiders' 22-10 loss to the Chargers in their Week 1 opener on Sunday.
Las Vegas was trailing 16-10 at the time and was at the Chargers' 43-yard line after getting the ball at midfield.
The Raiders had the Chargers pinned down at their own 8-yard line in a game dominated primarily by defense.
But the decision backfired, as Los Angeles went 92 yards for a touchdown, highlighted by a 61-yard run by J.K. Dobbins, to seal the victory in coach Jim Harbaugh's debut.
“We thought we'd do that.” Pierce told reporters after the game. “It's going to be a long game and we got stopped early in the game. Our punter did a good job of containing them and we had a couple of punts inside the 20. Our defense was a strength for the most part. We took three timeouts and we're going to keep them on the defensive end.”
It is fair to say that the analytical community did not agree with this logic.
“The Raiders are worth $6.2 billion. There's no way they can't have a math/modeling guru in Antonio Pierce's ear. Just tell him to punt or go for it.” Adam Levitan of Establish the Run writes:
“ESPN analytics strongly disagreed with Antonio Pierce's decision to punt on fourth down and 1 in Chargers territory,” ESPN reporter Paul Gutierrez wrote.
(Win Rate) Go: 24.8% (+5.7%) WP Punt: 19.1%
“The Raiders are the first team since 2016 to punt on fourth down and one yardage into the fourth quarter while trailing by one point.”
Timo Riske for Pro Football Focus A more candid summary of the situation: “This is the stupidest thing that's happened this season, trust me.”
Pierce, a former Giants linebacker, led the team to a 5-4 record last season after replacing the fired Josh McDaniels and earned the full-time job in Las Vegas.
“That's a coach's decision,” quarterback Gardner Minshew said. From ESPN. “But I think any baseball player wants the opportunity to have the ball in their hands and contribute to their team.”
The Raiders will travel to Baltimore to take on the Ravens on Sunday, Week 2 at 1 p.m.
