After the game, coach Antonio Pierce addressed the media. Below is a transcript of what he said:

ANTONIO PIERCE: No, just, it was bad. Just not good enough. The crowd was obviously ready for it. I appreciate the crowd, everyone who showed up, they did their part. We didn’t. The scheme wasn’t good enough. The design of the plays wasn’t good enough today. What we thought would work didn’t work and on the grass we didn’t execute it and we didn’t put in the effort that we had in previous games.

1. Antonio, you said you wanted to be a team that controlled the line of scrimmage and on both sides of the line of scrimmage, that didn’t seem to be the case today. ANTONIO PIERCE: We got beat up.

Q. Yes, a reason? What would you say is the crux of that?

ANTONIO PIERCE: We got beat up. We got to put on pads, I don’t know, we got to get on the sled. Same group that’s coming back, for the most part, and same technique, same coaches, it’s not a different scheme, so we’ve got to coach better, obviously, and get tough on the guys, and guys got to take some rough coaching, because we just didn’t see that on either side of the ball. We had opportunities to run the ball and we didn’t. We didn’t run the ball at all. We tried and tried and tried and I would have booed us, too, offensively, defensively, we didn’t do a good enough job up front, not good enough.

Q. Coach, I know you’re upset about the performance. How would you rate your concerns about the team’s effort? It seemed like this was one of the first games under your leadership that the team just didn’t seem to show up tonight.

ANTONIO PIERCE: No, they didn’t. I think the team did it as the game went on. I think there were certainly a number of individuals who made business decisions and we will make business decisions in the future.

Q. Antonio, last week there was some talk about maybe some disrespect that was happening nationally with the point spread and I heard it from the players, but the reality is that people are expected to believe in them and let them down a little bit today. So, you know, where does that fall under — you have to earn it. That belief and that trust has to be earned on the field.

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, I think the one thing I’ve always talked about and I’ve talked to you guys and ladies about is consistency. We’re here now and that’s not what we’re fighting for and that’s not what we’re striving for and it showed today and if I could say I saw it coming I would have told you, but I didn’t see it coming and inconsistent plays is something we just have to continue to work on.

Q. It seemed like, I know you mentioned the trench bus in the secondary, there were a lot of Panthers that got open in the middle of the field and had a lot of space to run. That’s not something we’ve really seen a lot of from this defense. Can you explain those breakdowns?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of guys in this game and there was some zonal dominance and there had to be tighter coverage. And I have to give them credit, of course, because they came out here and put their best foot forward and we didn’t.

Q. AP, this offense, other than a quarter and a half in Baltimore, has struggled a little bit. What do you think the problem is or is it something you have to look at on film?

ANTONIO PIERCE: No, just PNT and first and 10. The next down is probably second and eight, second and 9 in most cases. If you can’t win on early downs, teams are just going to keep hitting us and they’re going to have their full arsenal on the third down menu and that’s really what you’re seeing. So until we can do a better job, either run the ball or be more productive, get out there, get some positive plays on first and second down. It’s not going to be good, but we’re going to — we’ve got to work on it, it’s a long season, it’s Week Three. We’re going to go into the lab and we’ve got to really get to work.

Q. You brought Aidan O’Connell in late in the game. Is that something that could be on the table in the future?

ANTONIO PIERCE: I think the game got out of hand. You know, when you have two quarterbacks in a battle, you let the other one go in there and see what he can do.

Q. Coach, what are the positive points for you of –

ANTONIO PIERCE: Nothing.

V. — today’s match. Nothing?

ANTONIO PIERCE: Nothing. Except the crowd. Thank you Raider Nation, (unintelligible) too bad we didn’t come and do our part.

Q: Saw Jackson Powers-Johnson play a little bit at right guard. Is that because Dylan had a foot injury this week, or was it just –

ANTONIO PIERCE: That was just the plan. Nothing with Dylan. Dylan plays really well for us. That’s just the direction we decided to put him.

Q. I had a couple of questions. It looked like Marcus Epps had some sort of lower leg injury towards the end of the game, if you have an update on his status.

ANTONIO PIERCE: I just know it’s a knee. Let’s get that evaluated.

Q. Secondly, I know you’ve been saying all week and even just now that you want to set up the run this week, but is there a certain point where you guys — I don’t want to say give up on the run, but you should take a pass first approach if it’s just not working?

ANTONIO PIERCE: We’ve got to do something to fix it. If it’s to open it up, I mean, scheme, players, coaching. I mean, I’ve said it before, I’m not going to sit here and just sit there and watch it. It’s just not good enough. 3.4, two yards last week. That’s not who we are. That’s not the identity. That’s not how I want it to be. That’s not what our team is going to look like and we’ve got to work on it.

Q. What did you see in the trenches on defense? Were you satisfied with the effort on defense in the trenches?

NTONIO PIERCE: No. I thought we all underperformed today. Bad day for the Raiders.

Q. One more thing, what do you think you see early in Gardner’s attack?

ANTONIO PIERCE: It looked like everything. It started with the run game, the passing game wasn’t there. I mean, look, you look, your eyes go to different places, but. We had a chance, I mean, there’s a couple things we wanted to do that showed up, it was just here, you don’t see it until 10 minutes or 12 minutes or another quarter or not at all, so just not a good performance from us today. Thank you guys.

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