As if the loss to the Carolina Panthers wasn't bad enough, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce drew even more negative attention to his team last week when he made his "business decisions" comment in the wake of the loss.
While Pierce was right to be frustrated by what he perceived to be lackluster effort from some of his players in Week 3, he was probably better off keeping that in-house as opposed to making it public.
And that's something the Raiders head coach admitted after the Week 4 win over the Cleveland Browns, with Pierce saying he regrets making the comment in public.
“It was a trying week. There was a lot of hoopla, and stuff. Probably started with me, with my comments, and I apologize for that," Pierce said. "Don’t want to be a distraction that way but I think we just went to work each and every day.
"Things came out throughout the week and guys just never flinched and blinked.”
On top of the fallout from the loss and Pierce's comments, the Raiders received no shortage of bad news on the injury front to further put them in the depths of despair.
The added negative attention from Pierce's comment certainly wasn't ideal, especially in the wake of a tough loss, but at least his players responded, which was made more impressive by the fact that Las Vegas was missing several key players on both sides of the ball, including edge rusher Maxx Crosby and wide receiver Davante Adams.
Not only did the Raiders win, they overcame an early 10-point deficit to do so, which showed this team has plenty of fight left in it. Whether or not the Raiders can keep the positive momentum going in a Week 5 matchup against the Denver Broncos remains to be seen, but at least they're back from the brink for now.
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