When Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis fired Josh McDaniels, it marked the second time in the last three seasons the Raiders have made a coaching change in the middle of their season and responded by going on a run, rallying behind an interim coach, whose approach could be described as player-friendly.

First it was Rich Bisaccia, a veteran special teams coach who took over after Jon Gruden resigned following the release of emails where Gruden used homophobic, racist, and sexist slurs in a correspondence with then-Washington general manager Bruce Allen. Gruden may have hung around in Vegas for a while if it weren't for those emails, but in time, it would've been clear as day that he's nothing more than a wildly mediocre football coach. And hey, speaking of wildly mediocre, this year after Raiders players broke Josh McDaniels in a team meeting, McDaniels was relieved of his duties and replaced by Antonio Pierce, who has coached the Raiders to back-to-back wins.

“The players have taken this place over,” a Raiders source shared with Diana Russini of The Athletic. “Ownership is fine with it, too.” And why wouldn't ownership be fine with it? Now granted, the two wins have come against the Giants and the Jets, which aren't exactly the best resume builders. But this isn't college football. There are no polls that the Raiders need to climb or voters they can impress with notable wins. And it should be mentioned, when Josh McDaniels was the man in charge, he the Raiders took a 30-12 loss on the chin at the hands of the Chicago Bears. It's not like he too was cleaning up against below average opponents.

The changes that Antonio Pierce has made have been minor, but clearly impactful. Just in empowering his players, the Raiders have played the last two weeks with a level of energy we didn't see from them during the first two months of the season. A simple example, like allowing the players on the team to choose when the Raiders would fly out to Florida for their game against the Dolphins was noted in Russini's piece.

In situations when the status of a team's culture comes into question, I'm inclined to wonder why more decision makers for professional sports franchises don't watch Ted Lasso. For as silly as the show can be, it captures the intricacies of team building extremely well, and highlights how important it is to have a good human being who values his players leading your team. Imagine that!

Somewhere in the Raiders locker room, there should be a Silver and Black ‘Believe' sign hanging on the wall, because right now, they're playing like a team that embodies that mindset.