Antonio Pierce tried to defend his flawed logic over game-ending blunder vs. Chiefs

A lot has gone into the Las Vegas Raiders being a 2-10 team through the first 13 weeks of the season. The Silver and Black were expected to be hovering around .500 at the start of the year. For various reasons, they have continually come up short. Now that Gardner Minshew II is out for the season, we have to wonder if this will be the last year that Antonio Pierce gets to call the shots here.

On Black Friday, the Raiders played with their leftovers and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in a very winnable game for Las Vegas, 19-17. Aidan O'Connell largely outplayed his counterpart Patrick Mahomes in a very low-scoring game. The problem for the Silver and Black was the typically sure-footed Daniel Carlson could not hit water if he fell out of a boat. He missed three of his four kicks!

However, all that anyone is going to remember from this game is what all went wrong for the Raiders in the final seconds. They had enough time to get the ball closer than the 49-yard field-goal try that was sure to follow. Instead, a botched snap led to a fumble recovery by the Chiefs and that was the end of that. Of course, Pierce had to defend what happened in the final seconds that led to the loss.

Apparently, the plan was just to kill some clock with a throw away before attempting the 49-yarder...

The fact Pierce did not want to make it easier on Carlson is a borderline fireable offense at this point.

We have to wonder how much better the Raiders would be if they actually had a real head coach...

Antonio Pierce's defense of Las Vegas Raiders botch-job is deplorably bad

Through the first 13 weeks of the season, I am still not entirely sure how good the Chiefs are. They suffered their first loss of the season not that long ago. Kansas City has won one game after another by the skin of their teeth. In this chaotic NFL season, that may be enough to win the NFC and get back to the Super Bowl, although the Detroit Lions loom large over in the NFC. But this is not about them...

The Raiders keep making one mistake after another at head coach. While Pierce is infinitely more likable than either of his two predecessors, I can only imagine how much better this year's Raiders team would have been if Jim Harbaugh was coaching them, and not the division rival Los Angeles Chargers. This has not been Andy Reid's finest season, although Steve Spagnuolo has flourished.

What I am getting at is you cannot let your season unravel on you like it has for Pierce. A win over the Chiefs during Thanksgiving Weekend would have gone a long way to quite the doubters who are continually getting louder over the fact that Pierce is so underqualified for this role. The Raiders need to draft a quarterback, but let O'Connell be the stop-gap. They probably need a new head coach, too.

Winners find ways, while losers find excuses. I am blown away over just how bad the Raiders are now.