Antonio Pierce nearly breaks Tom Telesco while celebrating Raiders upset win

Mike Moraitis

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Antonio Pierce nearly breaks Tom Telesco while celebrating Raiders upset win image

You can probably count the amount of people on this entire planet who thought the Las Vegas Raiders would beat the Baltimore Ravens on one hand because nobody expected head coach Antonio Pierce's squad to pull off the Week 2 upset.

And it was understandable given how bad the Raiders looked in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers, and how the Ravens were coming off a close loss to arguably the best team in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs.

On top of that, it was a road game for Las Vegas, and the Ravens' strength, which is running the football, was a terrible matchup for a Raiders defense that has been a sieve against the run dating back to the preseason.

Thankfully for the Raiders, games aren't played on paper or else they never would have pulled off what was one of the biggest upsets of the entire Week 2 slate.

After the Raiders secured their first win of the 2024 campaign, general manager Tom Telesco met Pierce in the tunnel and the two shared an embrace that saw the Raiders head coach nearly break his general manager.

Telesco was NOT ready for the energy Pierce was bringing. The poor guy is going to have to wear body armor the next time the Raiders win a game.

Here's video of the Raiders GM greeting players in the tunnel.

"Congratulations to our offense and our team, but we've still got work to do," Pierce said after the win, per Levi Edwards of Raiders.com. "There's a lot of meat on the bone. I'll be honest, we've got to run the ball better. But I do say this, we came out in the second half, especially late in that third quarter, protected the quarterback."

The Raiders will have a golden opportunity to grab their second win of the 2024 season in Week 3 when they welcome the flailing Carolina Panthers to Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.

Mike Moraitis

Mike Moraitis Photo

After cutting his teeth with Bleacher Report, Mike Moraitis has covered the Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans for FanSided, and the Titans and New York Giants for USA TODAY Sports Media Group. On top of his duties with Sporting News, Mike is the managing editor and lead writer for Titans Wire.