Antonio Pierce’s first game as the interim head coach of the Raiders couldn’t have gone much better.
The Raiders scored the first time they had the ball and got out to a 27-0 lead in the third quarter before coasting to a 30-6 win over the Giants. Pierce took on his new role after the Raiders fired Josh McDaniels eight games into his second season on the job.
Jakobi Meyers put the Raiders on the board with a 17-yard run in the first quarter and Josh Jacobs ran 26 times for 98 yards and two more touchdowns as the Raiders raced out to their big lead. Rookie Aidan O’Connell replaced Jimmy Garoppolo as the starting quarterback once Pierce took over and he went 16-of-25 for 209 yards.
Wide receiver Davante Adams was targeted on seven of those passes and had four catches for 34 yards a week after airing his frustration about having one catch in the Raiders’ loss to the Lions. He said this week that he thought it was time for the team to make a change when asked about the firing of McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler because he thought the team needed something to revitalize the season.
They seemed to find it on Sunday and that’s been the case for a lot of the Giants’ opponents this season. They are now 2-7 and they saw quarterback Daniel Jones leave the game with a knee injury on the first play of the second quarter. Jones had missed the previous three games with a neck injury and another extended absence will not do much to keep the Giants competitive over the second half of the season.
Right tackle Evan Neal also left the game with a left ankle injury. He returned on Sunday after missing two games with a right ankle injury, so it was a bad day for multiple members of the offense.
They’ll be in Dallas next weekend in a bid to avoid a repeat of the 40-0 thrashing the Cowboys put on them in Week One. Pierce and the Raiders will face the Jets next Sunday night in Las Vegas.
