LAS VEGAS — It was, as Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said, “a trying week” for his team.
So, in the wake of the Raiders’ white-knuckle 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium to even their record at 2-2, Pierce said he was sorry.
Sorry for his part in the pseudo-maelstrom, which began with his saying some Raiders players made “business decisions” in the course of their lackluster loss to the Carolina Panthers and that the Raiders would thusly make “business decisions” of their own.
“There was a lot of hoopla, and stuff,” Pierce said Sunday. “Probably started with me, with my comments, and I apologize for that. Don’t want to be a distraction that way but … we just went to work each and every day. Things came out throughout the week and guys just never flinched [or] blinked.”
One of the players at whom Pierce’s comments were thought to be aimed — starting cornerback Jack Jones, who was observed whiffing on several late-game tackles against the Panthers — did not play in the first quarter against the Browns.
A team business decision?
“Yeah, that was my decision,” Pierce said. “That’s between me and Jack.”
Jones, who sat out the Raiders’ first two defensive series, had no anger in his voice after the game.
“S—, that’s ball,” Jones, who has known Pierce since high school in Long Beach, Calif., said with a smile.
“I mean if I’m not up, I’m not up. If I’m up, I’ve got to play … that’s something you’ve got to talk to A.P. about, man. I’m the player.”
Another hiccup to the week was Las Vegas being without its two biggest stars in three-time first-team All-Pro receiver Davante Adams, who injured a hamstring in practice Thursday, and three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who suffered a left high ankle sprain in Week 2, as well as four other starters — tight end Michael Mayer (personal reasons), linebacker Divine Deablo (oblique), right tackle Thayer Munford Jr. (ankle/knee) and safety Marcus Epps (knee). Epps was put on injured reserve this week.
Though Pierce said neither Adams nor Crosby would play against the Browns in his Friday news conference, Crosby was later officially ruled doubtful to play in the injury report, contradicting the coach.
Crosby was inactive.
And though Adams was on the sideline for the game — the hamstring seemed fine as he sprinted to help celebrate fellow receiver DJ Turner‘s first career touchdown, an 18-yard run, in the third quarter — Crosby, who sat out the first game in his six-year NFL career, was not.
Crosby, though, later video called his fellow defensive linemen in the Raiders victorious locker room.
“We had Maxx down,” defensive tackle Adam Butler said, “so somebody had to step up.”
Paging, then, defensive end Charles Snowden, who entered with five NFL games on his résumé in four years.
“Maxx is a great player and … not having him out there, his playmaking and just his energy, we all kind of just assumed our role and knew one person wasn’t going to be Maxx Crosby,” said Snowden, whose sack of Deshaun Watson on fourth-and-3 with the Browns at the Raiders’ 9-yard line sealed the game with 35 seconds to play.
“It was going to take all of us.”
Talk about a business decision.
