Josh Jacobs on Raiders' victory over Giants: 'The vibe and the energy is just electric'

Puffs of cigar smoke wafted through the Las Vegas Raiders locker room as music bumped following Sunday’s 30-6 victory over the New York Giants. The celebratory mood beckoned to Raiders days of yesteryear, highlighting the change that has washed over the organization following last week’s firing of Josh McDaniels, with former player Antonio Pierce taking charge.

“I told them just go back to our roots. How did we all get here?” Pierce said after his first win as a coach, via the official transcript. “And I said it in (my introductory) press conference, when you were in Pop Warner, you just had to enjoy the love for the game, and I just felt like we’d lost that for a bit. Like I told you back on Thursday, if you were at practice, you would’ve seen it. Friday, same exact thing and just their focus throughout the building. Obviously, there’s videos the guys playing hoops, having fun, just enjoying themselves, but then we went to the grass, it was working, business, and they understand that. But more importantly, they wanted to do it for each other. They just wanted that feeling, that joy that they’re now celebrating, dancing and having a great time in the locker room.”

The players were loose, but Pierce, a 9-year linebacker with Washington and the New York Giants, who was elevated from LB coach to the head chair last week, said he was nervous heading into the game.

“It’s up there, my stomach was having butterflies before the game. That’s only happened two other times in my life, and it was special, very special,” he said.

Pierce’s approach has resonated with players.

“It’s a hard situation what happened this week, but I think the guys felt relieved and happy and super joyful that we could perform like this,” rookie QB Aiden O’Connell said. “So it was definitely rocking in the locker room.”

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