Prior to the Raiders’ two upcoming regular-season games against the Kansas City Chiefs, Antonio Pierce, who is entering his first full season as head coach, disclosed that he has already started game planning for how to slow down reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
In a recent interview with Maxx Crosby’s podcast, “The Rush,” Pierce made the comparison between how his team prepares for Mahomes and how the Detroit Pistons did in the 1980s and 1990s when they faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Pierce plans to stop Patrick Mahomes
In order to come up with the best plan to stop Mahomes and the Chiefs, Pierce disclosed that he is drawing inspiration from the heyday of the Bad Boy Pistons, one of the most physical teams in NBA history. He said,
“We’ve got the Jordan rules and we’ve got what I’m calling now, from now on as long as I’m here, the Patrick Mahomes rules,” “You remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the ’80s before he became Michael Jordan, Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whip his ass. Any time he came to the hole, elbows, feeling him, love taps. We’re in his head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I’m touching you. So I showed my guys Jordan getting his ass whooped.” “We saw red, we hate red,” “There’s a difference between dislike and hatred. There’s a hatred for the Chiefs.”
Pierce hopes that in order to have an advantage over Kansas City and its great quarterback, Las Vegas may summon some of the legendary Detroit team’s ferocious mentality that so often made things tough for Jordan and the Bulls.
Patrick Mahomes in action during the Super Bowl
Image courtesy : Yahoo! Sports
The two-time MVP has won 10 of his 12 games against the opposing team and thrown 30 touchdowns against the Raiders in his career, with just four interceptions. This season, Pierce hopes Las Vegas can continue to play with a physical approach during their biennial meetings.
