Antonio Pierce defends fourth-and-1, fourth quarter punt in Chargers territory

Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce broke with recent trends in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Chargers.

With his team down 16-10 with just over seven minutes left to play in Los Angeles, Pierce opted to punt from the Chargers’ 43-yard-line rather than go for it on fourth-and-1. It was the first time since 2016 that a coach trailing by one score in the fourth quarter has opted to punt in opposing territory on fourth-and-1 and it turned into a death knell for the Raiders when the Chargers drove 92 yards for a game-sealing touchdown.

Pierce expressed no regret about the decision when he spoke to reporters after the game.

“I mean, we got what we wanted,” Pierce said, via Greg Beachem of the Associated Press. “We got them backed up. We’ve got three timeouts there. Play good football, get the ball back [at] midfield, hopefully. But they broke off a long run, and that was the end of it. . . . We considered going for it. It was a long one. We got stopped earlier in the game. Momentum. The punter had done a good job pinning those guys back. I think he had two or three punts inside the 20. Again, defense was the strength for the most part of the game.”

Pierce’s call led to boos from the largely pro-Raider crowd and quarterback Gardner Minshew said “anybody that’s a ballplayer wants the ball in their hands with the opportunity to help the team.” Wide receiver Davante Adams said “my job is to run routes and do what’s called” while declining to share his view on what the Raiders should have done, but the conservative approach didn’t work out for the Chargers on Sunday.