LAS VEGAS – The Las Vegas Raiders are aiming to put the first nine weeks behind them and keep their eyes solely focused on snapping a five-game losing streak this week against the Miami Dolphins.
“We needed to take a good cold shower,” Las Vegas coach Antonio Pierce said about the team’s bye week via the Raiders website. “Wash all that badness that came from the nine games. … We’re committed to this bad boy and turn it around.”
The bye week brought changes to the Raiders. They fired three coaches (offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello, and offensive line coach James Cregg). They brought on Scott Turner as its offensive coordinator and his father, Norv, to be a special consultant to the team.
The goal, Pierce said, was to bring a spark to the offense and change the overall look and feel. He wants the running game to be more efficient. He wants to protect the football. Pierce wants improvement.
“The key word for us going forward, especially this week, is improvement,” Pierce said. “It’s not going to be all in one week. I’m not going to fix all those things. I doubt we can do that in one week. There are certain things that we talked as a staff and as a team that we need to fix this week, especially.”
Quarterback. Gardner Minshew, who was named the Week 11 starter, doesn’t expect too much to change in terms of philosophy, but rather, a few tweaks will be made early on.
“You keep the bones of the offense,” he said. “The approach to calling the game might be different. A different flavor to it. We’ll see how that develops as we move forward.”
Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.
