Since going down with a broken thumb in Week 7, Aidan O'Connell had to watch his team lose five straight games from the sideline. The Las Vegas Raiders' slide grew to eight games Friday despite the quarterback's 340 yards and two touchdowns passing in his return. They fumbled on the last play of the game and lost 19-17 to the Kansas City Chiefs rather than attempt a game-winning field goal.
"It's been a hard season," O'Connell told reporters after the game. "I feel really bad for the guys who work so hard. I've been out for five weeks, and it's been hard to watch because I know how hard the guys work throughout the week. It's tough to stomach right now. But again, I couldn't be more proud of our coaching staff and our players.
"It was a great game except for the last play."
The 2-10 Raiders had rallied from a 16-3 deficit to take a 17-16 lead early in the fourth quarter after O'Connell touchdown passes to Brock Bowers and Tre Tucker. They fell short, but coach Antonio Pierce sent a text to O'Connell and the rest of the team late Friday night.
"Proud of them, man," Pierce said in a video conference call Saturday morning. "Love the ... determination. I actually sent pretty much our whole organization a text. I appreciate everybody's effort, dedication, commitment and fight that they showed. On the short week, going to Kansas City, 10(-point)-plus underdogs with a chance to win the game there at the very end."
He has to be especially proud of O'Connell. The second-year player was Pierce's choice to replace starter Jimmy Garoppolo when Pierce took over as the interim coach last season. And O'Connell remained locked in after Gardner Minshew II beat him out for the starting job out of training camp, and then again after he replaced Minshew in Week 6 but then broke his thumb a week later.
O'Connell was admittedly not 100 percent coming back from his injury, but the timeline for his return was pushed up a week when Minshew broke his collarbone against the Denver Broncos on Nov. 24.
O'Connell started a little slow Friday but found his footing and was throwing darts in the second half.
"I thought he competed," Pierce said. "I thought for what we knew we was getting with Spags (Chiefs coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) and that defense, that he stood in the pocket, made some tough throws, took some hits, took the shots down the field like we wanted. We had some opportunities to take shots down the field (and) he threw them."
O'Connell was 5-for-6 for 188 yards on passes 20 yards-plus downfield, per Pro Football Focus. The 33-yard pass to Bowers was a beauty, as O'Connell dropped it in between three defenders at the goal line. Bowers finished with 10 catches for 140 yards.
"He's pretty special, obviously," O'Connell said. "He makes incredible plays, play after play. Sometimes I throw it, and I can't really see the result that's going to happen, but I have a lot of confidence in him, as well as a lot of other guys."
O'Connell and Bowers refound some chemistry quickly last week in practice.
"That's a credit to both players just putting time in, even on a short week, working after practice and talking," Pierce said. "Aidan is a pretty good communicator. He's done a really good job of that since he's gotten back. And Brock just works. If you ask Brock to be here today on the day off, he'll be out there playing pitch and catch."
Opposing defenses are trying elite cornerbacks and double-teams against the rookie tight end. Good luck, Pierce said.
"The last couple weeks, with Pat Surtain, and this week (Trent) McDuffie and the safeties. ... (Teams are) not putting too many linebackers on him throughout the game," Pierce said. "And now we're seeing double-teams and them really shifting their zone to him. And to be honest, I don't really think it matters, man. I think we got a really special player on our hands."
O'Connell also completed six passes for 97 yards to Jakobi Meyers and hit Tucker on a well-designed play where Tucker was in motion, sped up the sideline past the safety and O'Connell hit him in stride for a 58-yard score.
"All that stuff is growing," Pierce said. "Jakobi, back-to-back weeks he's had really good games. Tre Tucker, getting him going, that was really good to see that. We've been talking about taking shots. I know we talked about it a lot of my pressers, us throwing the ball down the field. Really good to see him make that play, run after the catch, and get in the end zone.
"So, man, I'm really excited about what these guys are doing, especially the young core group of guys."
"It's been fun to watch him," O'Connell said. "Obviously, he's been on our practice squad for the last two years, so I've gotten a lot of reps with him, especially last year at the beginning of the year as I was coming up through the preseason. I've gotten to see him grow a lot, which is really cool, and I'm super proud of him, he's playing awesome ball."
The 26-year-old O'Connell comes across as a veteran, but he is only in his second year himself. He might have something to say in these last five games about the Raiders drafting a quarterback high in the first round next year.
"I don't think he has 17 starts yet in his career," Pierce said. "So, coming back after a five- or six-week layoff, and just being sharp throwing the ball and mentally. I mean, he was totally engaged and understood what we needed to do, especially in that two-minute drive. He did a really good job there. I thought he commanded the offense."
The slow-footed O'Connell even ran for a first down, but it was called back by a penalty.
"He did break the pocket and scramble for a little bit. Probably a career high in rushing there for him," Pierce said, smiling. "That was good to see. And listen, I just loved the way our guys competed. I love the attitude and the accountability that everybody played with throughout the game and kept their chin up in a tough loss."