Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff Writer
HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce would not rule out making a quarterback change from Gardner Minshew to Aidan O’Connell after O’Connell’s late-game touchdown drive in the Raiders’ blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers.
“I think we’ve got to get with the players and just evaluate everything first,” Pierce said Monday in his weekly media conference, which was delayed more than an hour due to extra meetings with his coaching staff in the wake of the 36-22 home-opening loss dropping the Raiders’ record to 1-2.
And Pierce, a day after saying certain players made “business decisions” in the course of the Panthers game, did not back off from his postgame comment. Rather …
“I don’t bite my tongue,” Pierce said.
The Raiders, who play host to the Cleveland Browns (1-2) Sunday, had yet to make any “business decisions” of their own, Pierce said.
“You’re going to have times where sometimes your best players don’t have their best days and other guys got to step up and that’s why it’s called team football,” Pierce said. “More importantly, I think all of us need to just understand you’ve got to roll, you need to do it the best you can do it at full speed.
“The effort wasn’t up to par as it had been in the previous games, and that showed up. That didn’t look good at the end of the game.”
O’Connell, though, did perform well in relief of Minshew, who won a training camp battle with the second-year pro.
With the Raiders trailing, 36-15, O’Connell took over with 4:47 to play and led Las Vegas on a 70-yard, 13-play drive. He completed 9 of 12 passes for 82 yards with an 8-yard TD pass to Tre Tucker, though he was almost intercepted.
O’Connell said after the game he was not sure what his insertion into the game meant going forward.
“I want to execute anytime my number’s called and, obviously, the game is a lot different when I’m out there, vs. (playing) the entire game and so it’s a different situation,” O’Connell said. “We hope to be winning and not coming from behind, but I’m definitely grateful for the opportunity … as a team as a whole, we’ve got a lot to get better. Myself included.”
Minshew, meanwhile, passed for 214 yards in completing 18 of 28 attempts with a touchdown and an interception against the Panthers.
On the season, Minshew has completed 73.7% of his passes (which ranks fourth in the NFL among passers with at least 50 attempts) for 747 yards (sixth in the league) with three TDs and three interceptions.
“AP was talking about it in the locker room, not riding the roller coaster, not following the ups and downs, but continue to try to get better,” Minshew said after the game. “And if we do that — we’ve got the right people to do it — we’re going to be all right.”
Also, safety Marcus Epps suffered a torn ACL, per NFL Network.
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