Rich Bisaccia coached in a lot of NFL games over the last 20 years, but none of them was like Sunday’s game in Denver.
Bisaccia was the head coach of the Raiders rather than the special teams coordinator and he was leading his team into their first game since head coach Jon Gruden resigned in the wake of the release of offensive emails he sent before being hired by the Raiders. It made for a tumultuous week, but the Raiders handled it well enough to beat the Broncos 34-24 and snap a two-game losing streak.
After the game, Bisaccia said that the team did a good job handing their emotions and that the key now will be to remain as focused on football as they were able to be this week.
“I think a week of practice was good for everybody,” Bisaccia said, via Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It was emotional for all of us. But the guys were able to put it all in perspective when it came time to go to work. It’s still a job. We’ll see what kind of consistency we get from this going forward. That will be the challenge for all of us.”
The Raiders are 4-2 after Sunday’s win, so finding a way to repeat the effort they put forth on Sunday would make them a good bet to compete for a playoff spot this season. They’ll face the Eagles next weekend in their first bid to show that they’re capable of doing that without all of the other drama of last week.