Las Vegas Raiders' Offense Showing New Resolve

The Las Vegas Raiders' offense faced many different types of adversity this season under former Coach Josh McDaniels.

Arguably, the Raiders' biggest adversity was turnovers from the quarterback position and how the offense would respond to those turnovers.

Through the first eight games of the season, whenever the offense would turn the ball over, it seemed to deflate the Raiders as a unit. Oftentimes, an early or untimely turnover seemed to put Las Vegas' offense on a path of ineptitude that it were unable to recover from.

Under Interim Coach Antonio Pierce and Interim Offensive Coordinator Bo Hardegree, Las Vegas' offense seemed to respond differently.

After cruising to a victory a week earlier, Sunday night against the New York Jets the Silver and Black experienced adversity on the field for the first time under their new coaching staff.

Rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell threw an early interception, and running back Josh Jacobs had a late fumble as the Raiders were driving to put the game out of reach.

Both turnovers were the type that would have derailed the Raiders in the first eight weeks of the season.

Not this time.

"Yeah, I think just how do we handle adversity, right?" Pierce said. "Week one, I would say, first opportunity. We handled adversity pretty smoothly all game. On Sunday night, we had some ups-and-downs, had things go our way and not go our way. But like we talked about, just sticking together.

"There are going to be moments where the defense is playing great, and there's moments the defense is not going to play great, and whenever that happens, and I thought the best thing they did on both occasions is nobody blinked.

"They actually tapped and loved each other up as they crossed paths, offense and defense. And it’s the next play; it's another opportunity for us to be able to bounce back and make a play on defense."

Football is a game of inches. Everything matters, including how a team responds to adversity.

For a team that has already faced more adversity than most other teams in the National Football League, the Raiders need that newfound ability to battle through adversity as they enter the home stretch of their season.

The Silver and Black will head out on the road to South Beach to take on the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.

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