Heading into a big game with the Kansas City Chiefs, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce was candid in his assessment of how Patrick Mahomes stacks up against the two greatest quarterbacks he ever played against in Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
“Three,” Pierce said, when asked where Mahomes ranks amongst the 3 all-time great quarterbacks.
Pierce inevitably gave Mahomes his due, but isn’t ready to put him ahead of the other two all-time greats.
“I’m sure by the end of it, he’ll probably move up,” Pierce said. “He’s a tremendous talent. Even with what’s going on with the interceptions, he’s still playing his best ball.”
Preparing for Mahomes as a coach however, brings the same stress for Pierce as it did when playing linebacker against Brady and Manning.
“Game planning against him is the same countless, sleepless nights you had as a player.”
The Raiders are taking an approach of not being in awe of the back-to-back Super Bowl champions.
“I ain’t intimidated by him,” said Raiders cornerback Jack Jones, whose pick-six last Christmas against Mahomes stood as the signature play of the year for the Raiders last season.
“I don’t think anyone in this locker room is intimidated by him,” said Jones.
Intimidated or not, the Raiders are big underdogs at home this weekend, as they’re struggling at the midway point of the season with a 2-5 record against the only undefeated team remaining in the NFL.
To make the Raiders challenge an even steeper climb, Mahomes and the Chiefs are likely treating this as a revenge game, and will play at Allegiant Stadium with a little something extra in the fuel tank.
“Obviously they want get-back,” said Jones.
“The video (of Kermit the Frog as Mahomes during the summer’s training camp) we had earlier in the year. It’s not like we’re going to back down, we’re going to step up.”
Add in Pierce’s comments that Mahomes, who has three Super Bowl MVPs to Manning’s one (as well as a 3-to-2 count in championships), is below Manning and Brady, and Mahomes—not just the Chiefs—have something more to prove to the Raiders and Pierce.
“He’s a magician,” said Raiders second-year cornerback Jakorian Bennett about Mahomes.
Bennett believes the Raiders can match the motivation of a Chiefs team coming in with revenge on their mind
“Our record, that’s where our energy is coming from,” said Bennett. “Three game losing streak? We gotta turn that around, that’s our motivation.”
Jack Jones echoed the same sentiments.
“We’ll be more extra than them,” said Jones. “We’re gonna match the energy and then still have more.”
No one expects the Raiders to win this game, but then again nobody expected them to win last Christmas, either.
Maybe the Chiefs make their point, steamroll the Raiders in Vegas and continue on their march to become the only team in NFL history to three-peat.
Perhaps they’ve truly pulled on Superman’s cape, and Mahomes, who has yet to put up one of his monster games, has saved one up just in store for Sunday.
Or maybe, the Raiders remind us that on any given Sunday, anything can happen in the NFL.
