HC Antonio Pierce has done his part, but will Raiders do the right thing?

Since firing head coach Josh McDaniels after a 3-5 start, Las Vegas is 3-3 under interim head coach Antonio Pierce. The Silver and Black could have thrown in the towel after the coaching change, but they appear to have rallied around Pierce and rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell, who had a career game Thursday night with four touchdown passes in a 63-21 rout of the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Raiders have yet to say whether Pierce will stay on as head coach next season, but given the franchise's previous mistakes and the way the players respond to him, he's more than worthy of consideration.

In early November, defensive end Maxx Crosby — the team's best player — endorsed Pierce, who played in the NFL with Washington and the New York Giants (2001-09).

“I feel like the No. 1 thing I can say about him is he’s just direct,” he said in an interview with the team's in-house media. “He’s blunt about everything, he’s going to give you the truth. Sometimes you don’t want to hear it, but you’d rather have that than somebody sugarcoat [expletive]. A guy like AP, you’ve got to respect it, because he’s been a player."

The Raiders have endured scandal and dysfunction since 2021, when head coach Jon Gruden was forced to resign that October after the leaking of his emails that included unseemly language.

Three weeks later, wide receiver Henry Ruggs was charged with driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter after killing a woman in a car accident. Police estimated Ruggs was driving 156 miles per hour at the time of the crash. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in August.

This pair of scandals could have sent the Raiders into disarray and almost did. After a 5-2 start to the 2021 season, Las Vegas lost five of its next six.

Instead of giving up, interim head coach Rich Bisaccia led the Raiders to a season-ending four-game winning streak, securing a playoff spot for just the second time since 2002. Although Las Vegas lost in the wild-card round to Cincinnati, Bisaccia seemed to have made his case for retention as head coach.

Instead, the Raiders let Bisaccia walk and hired McDaniels in yet another futile attempt to replicate the success of the Patriots. Predictably, McDaniels stumbled to a 9-16 record with Las Vegas, stunting the team's growth from 2021.

Will owner Mark Davis learn from his recent blunder and offer Pierce a long-term contract to stay with the Raiders?

That would be the smart decision, but recent history suggests Pierce will be passed over — and that would be another black mark for a team that has five winning seasons since the turn of the century.