The Las Vegas Raiders dropped to 1-2 on the season in rather embarrassing fashion on Sunday afternoon. The club hosted the winless Carolina Panthers and proceeded to get throttled in a 36-22 defeat that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated. While suffering a loss in the home opener is tough in itself, coach Antonio Pierce is putting some players on his roster in the crosshairs for their effort, or lack thereof.
“I think there were definitely some individuals who made business decisions, and we’ll make business decisions going forward as well,” Pierce told reporters postgame, via Pro Football Talk.
Of course, it’s unclear which players Pierce was referring to when making this claim, but it will be fascinating to monitor the team’s transactions in the next week or so to see if those “business decisions” come across the wire from the franchise.
Carolina jumped out to a 21-7 lead by halftime, and that advantage ballooned to a 33-7 score by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Andy Dalton got the start for the Panthers following the benching of Bryce Young, and the Panthers quarterback had his way with the Raiders defense. He completed 26 of his 37 pass attempts for 319 yards and three passing touchdowns — becoming the first quarterback this season to hit the 300-yard mark and three TDs. Meanwhile, running back Chuba Hubbard totaled 114 yards rushing on 21 carries. As a team, the Raiders allowed the Panthers to average 6.2 yards per play.
As for the Las Vegas offense, it scored a touchdown in the final seconds of the first quarter but then turned the ball over on downs, had two three-and-outs, and missed a field goal all before halftime. That largely continued in the second half before scoring 15 points in garage time.
When asked what positives the Raiders could take out of this game, Pierce replied, “Nothing.”
