Antonio Pierce gives OC Luke Getsy vote of confidence with caveat
Raiders coach Antonio Pierce’s vote of confidence in offensive coordinator Luke Getsy on Wednesday came with a major qualification.
Pierce said Getsy would remain the play-caller. For now, anyway.
But Pierce made it clear he must see improvement soon from an offense that is averaging 18 points after eight games.
“It has to get better,” Pierce said when asked about Getsy’s play-calling.
The calls especially have been questionable in critical situations. Twice in the past two weeks, the Raiders (2-6) failed to score touchdowns despite having first and goal inside the 5-yard-line.
In both games — two weeks ago against the Rams and Sunday against the Chiefs — the Raiders lost by five and seven points.
Ironically, they approached each situation differently but suffered the same frustrating result.
The Raiders had first and goal from the 4-yard line late in the fourth quarter against the Rams and trailed 20-12. They passed the ball three straight times and gained zero yards, so they settled for a field goal.
Then, against the Chiefs, the Raiders had first and goal from the 3, trailing 17-13 in the third quarter. They ran the ball three straight times for zero yards. Quarterback Gardner Minshew then was sacked on fourth down.
“There were opportunities to do it, and we didn’t do it,” Minshew said.
As a result, Getsy has come under fire. The Raiders have had difficulty sustaining drives, running the ball consistently and maximizing scoring opportunities.
Pierce shares in that frustration.
“There’s been a lot of opportunities for us to score points and make opportunities,” Pierce said. “And, yeah, that’s on the play-caller.”
He isn’t placing all the blame on Getsy, though.
“Like I told our staff and our players, it’s all of us.” Pierce said.
His players agree. As running back Alexander Mattison said, the Raiders must do a better job regardless of what play is called.
“It doesn’t matter what the situation is, what the call is, what time of the game it is,” Mattison said. “It doesn’t matter. We have to go out there and do our job and execute to the best of our ability.”
Mattison also thought the Raiders erred against the Chiefs in ways that extended from the sideline to the field.
“There were a few plays here and there where we have some execution errors, whether it might be the play call versus the defense that they’re in and wishing that we had that one back,” Mattison said.
Struggles on offense
The Raiders are averaging the sixth-fewest points in the NFL, their 632 yards rushing are the second-lowest and they are 26th in third-down conversion percentage.
Pierce said Getsy shoulders plenty of responsibility.
“Yeah, it does start with the coordinator,” he said. “He’s got to be the one that takes the fall for that and gets most of the blame. But it is collective.”
Pierce also called out the entire operation, including the play of quarterbacks Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell and the offensive line.
“It’s easy to sit here and just point the finger at Luke or myself,” Pierce said. “But the O-line play, the quarterbacks, the running backs, turnovers, missed blocks, missed play execution on plays, alignments to details — all those things have to get cleaned up.”
Minshew said it’s on the players to execute better
“Most plays, you have a chance,” he said. “If you do it right, guys can make it right on most plays.”
Clinging to hope
The Raiders’ offensive frustrations are exasperated by their recent success. For instance, in three of their past four games, they have scored touchdowns on their opening drives. It’s not that they can’t move the ball; it’s that they have not done so consistently.
As quickly as success comes, it fades.
Sunday was the perfect example. Their first two drives produced 10 points and 120 yards on 22 plays. They controlled the ball for more than 13 minutes.
“It felt like we were doing a good job once we got into a drive, establishing drives and staying on the field,” Minshew said. “I thought we did some good things on third down.”
But they had zero points and 13 plays on five of their next six drives. On the sixth drive, which began at the Chiefs’ 28-yard line, they gained just 13 yards on 10 plays and kicked a field goal.
“We’ve been able to see it here and there, but we just have to do it consistently,” Mattison said. “When we can do that, we can get rolling.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.