Las Vegas Raiders Media Conference

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Coach Antonio Pierce

Press Conference


Cowboys 27, Raiders 12

Q. AP, I would like to get your analysis, just what you thought tonight. Last week no penalties, playing off of last year, tonight it seemed very sloppy in the first half. Talk about that please.

ANTONIO PIERCE: It was. It wasn't up to our standard. Eight penalties there, bit a lot of those came off some explosive opportunities for us.

Special teams, offense you seen as well, just uncharacteristic. Hadn't been showing up. We've had officials at practice last week, what, four, five, maybe six penalties.

But today it came to the forefront, and that is obviously going to hurt you in games like this.

Obviously the red zone as well. 0-3 in the first half and then 1-4 to finish the game.

Q. AP, you said coming into this game you were hoping to make a decision about the starting quarterback afterwards. Do you feel like you've seen enough to make that decision or do you need to see more?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah. We've seen enough reps. Two games, like we talked about. Our guys are not playing the third preseason game, our starters, so we'll sleep on it and make a decision the next couple days.

Q. Felt like Aidan, up until the last throw to start the fourth quarter was kind of in command, playing efficient football. How much does what happened, how it ended, weigh into this whole thing?

ANTONIO PIERCE: I mean, everything. You can't take one -- can't take the good and not take the bad, right? Wish it ended well for both gentlemen; it just didn't.

We'll look at it and evaluate it. They both had opportunities. Aidan had 20 attempts and Minshew had 21. About as balanced as we could get it.

We will look at it. You saw what our plan was tonight: throw the ball around and let these guys showcase what they can do, and we'll talk about it.

Q. When it comes to the decision obviously you're not making it off just tonight, one game.

ANTONIO PIERCE: No.

Q. What factors into that decision for you?

ANTONIO PIERCE: It's going to be everything. I'm going to go all the way back to OTAs, mini camp, training camp, two preseason games. Going to be a lot of factors obviously, right? Command of the offense, the operational part, efficiency.

The turnovers is huge, right? That shows up. Taking care of the football is going to be important for our team. I think sitting there with Telesco and Luke over the next couple days and just really pinpoint who is going to get us off to a fast start and where we want to be in the first quarter of the season.

Q. Is Davante dealing with something or reason he didn't play?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, other night we had a scrimmage here or the practice here at the stadium he had an awkward movement where just got sore. He missed practice on Thursday, and like I said, guy's not 100% healthy I wasn't going to risk it. It's not worth it. He'll be back to practice come Tuesday.

Q. You said to start training camp you wanted somebody to make this decision obvious for you. I don't know that that's the case at this point. Not saying you're disappointed by that, but would you have liked to see someone take a decided step forward in this competition?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, I think everybody wants to see a player just take it and say, hey, I'm your guy, like I been saying from day one. Well, obviously probably not the case, so we're going to have to make a decision and live with it, and support whoever that quarterback is going forward, that's the decision.

Q. Tre Tucker keeps showing up, special teams and the explosive play on the pass catch. I know one of the highlights today. If you could talk about Tre?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Tre did an outstanding job. I mean, another one that was down the field as well that was right next to him and wish he could have been able to adjust to.

But we seen it now for two games in a row, that explosiveness, that ability to get down the field, get those big chunk plays we're looking for.

More importantly look at the special teams. That's three punt returns in the last two weeks and he has really changed the field dynamic in the sense for that where we want to play half court offense, not have to drive the ball 75, 80 yards down the field, whatever it may be.

But he's done a really good job finding his role. We got other players on our team, but finding his niche. He's really done a good job the last two weeks.

Q. Brock Bowers?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, woke up the other morning with a little foot soreness. It was just yesterday. And obviously again, if you're not 100% healthy you're not going to play.

So dealing with a foot. Hopefully got to be smart now. We're getting closer to the regular season.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
147489-1-1041 2024-08-18 05:42:00 GMT

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