Raiders Defense Looking to Avoid Repeat of Last Season

The Las Vegas Raiders are coming off of arguably their biggest road victory in at least the last two seasons and they will hit the road again to face the Indianapolis Colts in a game they must win to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Interim Coach Antonio Pierce is preparing the Raiders for another physical game. Pierce wants to avoid a similar result as last year when the Colts visited Las Vegas.

That starts by slowing down Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who rushed for nearly 150 yards against the Raiders last season.

“They are a physical football team," Pierce said. "They came in here last year and got after us pretty well. We're going to expect their best football, obviously. They're good up front on both sides. O-line, D-line, and we've got to deal with that. Big running back, we saw that last year. It wasn't pretty for us."

"And at quarterback, we got to be careful with this guy [Gardner Minshew]. He's tricky, and he's tricky good. And he's done a really good job for them really just coming in, and you can’t even tell, like, is he a backup? You wouldn't know. I would think he was the starter since day one, the way he's playing and the way the team plays around him."

Las Vegas will only celebrate their emotional victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs for a short time. Pierce said just like with a loss, the Raiders have 24 hours to move on from the last game and focus on a formidable Colts team.

"It's a well-coached team," Pierce said. "Obviously, their defensive staff knows our players very well, and they run a very good scheme. It's going to be a physical game. It’s the 24 Hour Rule. It was a great, great, great, great plane ride home on Christmas Day, but today's December 26. We are getting ready to play these boys on New Year's Eve, and that's going to be fun.”

The Raiders will have to win their remaining two games and hope for various results around the National Football League to punch their ticket to the playoffs.

However, playoffs or no playoffs, Las Vegas must be prepared to follow up their big victory over the Chiefs with another important road win before their regular season finale at home.

The Silver and Black continue the season on New Year's Eve versus the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Don't miss it on Sunday, December 31, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.

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