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Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff Writer
HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce acknowledged Monday that his team, mired in a three-game losing streak, is in a “dark moment,” but dismissed talk of the Raiders checking out.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to be 2-5 — like to see that flipped — but at the end of the day, you’ve got to live in reality and that’s what we’re dealing with,” Pierce said Monday in his weekly news conference.
“There’s still a lot of football left. The season is not over. We’re not tanking. We’re not trying to lose games to do anything better for the future. Hell, we’re trying to be the best team we can and right now, we’re not a good team.”
Las Vegas is coming off a disheartening 20-15 loss at the Los Angeles Rams, a defeat that dropped their record at SoFi Stadium to 1-6. The Raiders enjoy a homefield advantage in Southern California due to their calling Los Angeles home from 1982-94 and maintaining a sizeable fan base there.
In the past two weeks the Raiders benched starting quarterback Gardner Minshew in favor of Aidan O’Connell, traded three-time All-Pro receiver Davante Adams to the New York Jets for a conditional third-round draft pick and saw O’Connell suffer a broken thumb in the first quarter of the loss at the Rams. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, O’Connell is expected to miss four to six weeks, though Pierce said he had no update.
The Raiders host the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, and the Raiders are the last team to beat the Chiefs. Las Vegas upset Kansas City, 20-14, on Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium.
“You have to lean on the people in the room,” Minshew, who threw three interceptions and lost a fumble for a scoop-and-score at the Rams, said following the game.
“It can feel like you’re backed into a corner and a lot of times that can be good for the team, feeling like your back is against the wall collectively, together. I feel like we still have that togetherness as a unit and it’s going to be huge for us moving forward.”
Pierce said his team was “pissed off” after the loss at the Rams.
“I like their demeanor today,” he said. “We’re working. Everybody’s in here to work. Nobody’s missing work today. So that’s really good, just to see our guys be consistent and steady …. We all signed up for this game, man, it’s tough. It’s hard. It’s not easy to win in the National Football League. It’s easy to get poked at like we are now … but we can’t worry about that. We can’t flinch, we can’t blink. We’ve just got to go to work. That’s all I know what to do is work.
“It’s a dark moment for us right now. We’ve got to get out.”