Raiders bye week: All eyes turn to Antonio Pierce’s culpability in this mess

Let's get this out of the way: While coaching can be undoubtedly questioned, the Raiders roster makeup can, too.

Las Vegas is decimated by injury and losing players like defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, defensive end Malcolm Koonce, strong safety Marcus Epps, quarterback Aidan O'Connell, center Andre James due to ailments. Then the team saw left tackle Kolton Miller, backup left tackle Andrus Peat, guard Cody Whitehair, slot cornerback Nate Hobbs, and tight end Harrison Bryant get hurt in Sunday's loss in Cincinnati.

That has compounded the Raiders' attempts to forge a successful path forward. And the roster is in general manager Tom Telesco's hands as the final authority in that regard, not Pierce.

Yet, the on-field play and production is very much a Pierce thing.

Especially considering his football team is nine games deep into this campaign and there's an obvious void in terms of identity. That's football blasphemy at this juncture of a football season, really.

It certainly seems the Raiders have an identity, albeit not one Pierce wanted.

"Well listen, I mean the last five games, we'd come out the gate like bulls, right? We're coming out scoring opening possessions, going down the field, second possession pretty good and then we kind of like hit a brick wall," the head coach said. "And as you're watching, three-and-outs or turnovers show up in those last five games. And it just became apparent that obviously, we weren't doing enough as a staff and as a team to overcome our mistakes and downfalls. And obviously again, I'm going to go back to it, we had plenty of opportunities, either in the red zone or a turnover, a big play on special teams to create those opportunities for our team to win."

The hiatus should do Las Vegas some good.

A return to form in terms of avoiding mental lapses will help Pierce.

Once a very disciplined football team that avoided flags with Pierce in charge, the Raiders five-game skid is rife with penalties. Las Vegas has 36 total accepted penalties going against it for 284 yards during that span. In the first four games of the season, the infraction count read: 17 accepted penalties for 133 yards. The total of 53 penalties to the tune of 417 yards puts the Raiders at 21st in the league in terms of infractions and 19th in penalty yardage.

But that's well within Pierce's control and he's got to be the one to quell that. He's got the player's backing despite a 2-7 mark and this isn't a case where Raiders checked out and gave up on his predecessor Josh McDaniels.

That said, with the scapegoats for a floundering offense are gone. Turner and Philbin replace them, but they too were already on staff in different roles (Turner as pass game coordinator, Philbin as senior advisor to the offense). Pierce could've picked tabbed them to do what they're doing now on an interim basis all the way back in February before the hiring of Getsy and Cregg.

But with the replacements now set, the burning heat will continue to smolder on the head coach if the losses continue to stack.