It’s only three games, but Antonio Piece has the Raiders as competitive as ever. They won their first two games outright with Piece as the head coach and managed to keep the Dolphins in a one-score game.
According to ESPN, Pierce is undefeated (3-0) against the spread (ATS) as the team’s interim coach. Why does this matter? Teams that are good against the spread are typically outperforming expectations.
A perfect example of this is their Week 11 loss to the Dolphins. The Raiders ended up being 13.5-point underdogs going into that game but lost by just seven. They had a chance to tie or win the game at the end, but their comeback attempt came up just a bit short.
The Raiders are again big underdogs (+9) in Week 13 despite being at home. They are hosting the Chiefs, where Andy Reid is 13-7 ATS in his KC career against the Raiders.
Can Pierce and the Raiders keep this close? All the numbers suggest that they probably won’t. But Pierce has done an excellent job of getting his team to rise up and play over their heads so far. We shall see if he can do it again against arguably the best team in the AFC.
