Antonio Pierce on Gardner Minshew's turnovers: He needs to get out of his own head

One of the main reasons the Raiders swapped quarterback Gardner Minshew for Aidan O'Connell was Minshew's penchant for turnovers.

Minshew's struggles with them were again a major factor when he had to enter Sunday's game after O'Connell suffered a thumb injury, as Minshew threw three picks and lost a fumble in the 20-15 loss.

With O'Connell out for at least four weeks due to his injury, Minshew is back in the starting lineup for Las Vegas. And that means head coach Antonio Pierce needs the quarterback to better protect the football.

“He needs to get out of his own head,” Pierce said in his news conference Monday. “I mean, he’s a quarterback, he’s been in this league, he gets it. Obviously we encouraged him. Very positive on the sidelines with everything that happened yesterday. Our team said, no blinking. That's all he kept hearing on the sidelines of facing adversity.

“I thought our defense responded well, even when they suddenly made a change and scored, but we kept fighting the whole game. Even at the end of the game when we had the chance to make another stop, we did it. Gave the offense the ball again in less than two minutes to see if we could get the win.”

While that is true, Minshew threw his third interception to effectively end the game on the third play of the possession.

In six games this season, Minshew has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,168 yards, with four touchdowns and a league-high eight interceptions. He also lost two fumbles.