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It is no secret the Las Vegas Raiders have pretty much carried over their offensive woes of 2023 into 2024, the same way they carried the amazing defense over, too. But, this is a completely new scheme under new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, one that has seen success before with the Green Bay Packers, where he wasn't running the show, but it was the same system.
The offense in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers was as Antonio Pierce said "piss poor." The offense against the Baltimore Ravens started the same, but in the second half, we got a glimpse of what it could be. That alone is enough to give fans optimism for the rest of the season, considering they did it against one of the league's very best defenses.
Antonio Pierce was impressed by the offense in the last quarter. And he gave the fans and media a bit of insight into what's going on behind the scenes that should give improvements on that side of the ball very soon.
"Yeah, I saw it in the fourth quarter, and that's what we've been asking for. I think he [Gardner Minshew] finally just came out of his shell and took it off. Between him and our skill players, they really made a lot of plays.
"And to be honest yesterday, and you hear this a lot, yesterday was our best practice in a long time, offensively in a long, long time. It was really crisp, lot of energy, the speed was up, guys were running around having fun. So, we need to carry that on into Sunday."
Now, Pierce isn't one to do a whole lot of, as they say in the business, coach talk. He doesn't say things just to say them because he should as a coach. If something is bad, he says that. He knows what good football is supposed to look like because he's won a Super Bowl. He won't sugar-coat anything.
So, if he says the offense is improving, and Minshew is improving, and they have had some good practices on that side of the ball against the best defense in the NFL, then you should maybe believe him. Buy into the hype. Let's hope we see that start to come to fruition this week against the Carolina Panthers.
