Raiders look like a new team after Josh McDaniels was fired, blast the Giants
When you have a team meeting and air out grievances against your head coach, and that coach gets fired shortly afterward, you better be ready to play Sunday.
The Las Vegas Raiders looked reborn, a few days after Josh McDaniels was fired.
The Raiders cleaned house. They fired their head coach and general manager Dave Ziegler, and benched quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, one of the only times you'll find a team making midseason changes at the three most important spots in a franchise. It worked, for at least one week.
Las Vegas destroyed the New York Giants 30-6. The game was never competitive. The Raiders looked like a team that was hoping its recently fired and unpopular coach was watching at home.
The Raiders players and reportedly even coaches blasted McDaniels in what will go down as an infamous team meeting. Their performance Sunday was a direct message to their fired coach.
Raiders play very well vs. Giants
Players who were having terrible seasons with McDaniels turned things around. Josh Jacobs had two first-half touchdowns. Hunter Renfrow, completely forgotten after McDaniels was hired, reemerged with a couple of catches. Rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell, who was passed over by McDaniels for a start for over-the-hill veteran Brian Hoyer a couple weeks ago, was very sharp. The Raiders looked like a totally different team.
A lot of that has to do with the Giants, who are having a horrible follow-up to Brian Daboll's first season as head coach. It didn't help that Daniel Jones left the game with a knee injury and Tommy DeVito had to replace him. It's hard to believe the Giants watched DeVito have minus-1 yard passing last week after entering the game midway through the second quarter, put Tyrod Taylor on injured reserve and still didn't add a better backup option, but that's what happened.
The Jones injury doesn't explain why the Giants' defense got torched. Rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell was 9-of-10 for 135 yards in the first half. Jacobs had 85 yards rushing in the first half. He hadn't put up more than 77 in a full game all season before Sunday.
The Raiders hadn't scored more than 21 points in a game all season before Sunday. They had 24 points at halftime. That reflects poorly on the Giants. It's probably more of an indictment of McDaniels.
Antonio Pierce gets first win
In 2021, the Raiders turned to Rich Bisaccia as their interim coach after firing Jon Gruden under controversial circumstances. Bisaccia led the Raiders to the playoffs. Instead of seeing if he could continue that momentum, Raiders owner Mark Davis needed a brighter, shinier toy and made a horrendous decision to hire McDaniels.
That has to be in Davis' head as he watches interim coach Antonio Pierce over the second half of the season. Who knows where the Raiders' season is going, but it's a job interview for Pierce.
The Raiders kept rolling in the second half against the Giants. They took a 27-point lead, and Fox said it was their largest lead in a game since Week 2 of the 2017 season. DeVito completed a few passes, finally, and the Giants scored to ruin the Raiders' shutout. But it was still the most dominant performance the Raiders have had in a long time. It probably wasn't a coincidence that it came right after they rid themselves of a coach who had lost the locker room, just like he did in his first head-coaching stint with the Denver Broncos more than a decade ago.
The Raiders are 4-5. It will be tough for them to make the playoffs but not impossible. Either way, it seems they're going to have a lot more fun the rest of the season.
