The Las Vegas Raiders responded to a coaching change by beating the New York Giants 30-6 on Sunday. Their Sunday night meeting with the New York Jets might be a better barometer on whether interim coach Antonio Pierce can guide the Raiders into the playoff race.

“We knew last week was going to be emotional,” Pierce said on Wednesday. “We checked that this morning. You can’t win in the National Football League each and every week on emotions. We’ll get burned out. Now it comes back to what football’s all about – execution, fundamentals, technique, doing your job, maintaining that winning stamina.”

After coach Josh McDaniels and offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi were fired last week, Pierce moved up from linebackers coach and Bo Hardegree went from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.

Hardegree got some help from running back Josh Jacobs on and off the field.

“This week, they let me get involved in calling the runs,” Jacobs said after Sunday’s game, “so throughout the week I was peaking all the runs that I like, and I was talking to the offensive line about how they felt about the runs, so when we got a chance, I sat down with them and I was like, ‘When we get a chance to run these in the game, we got to make them work. If we want to get them called, we got to make them work.’”

Jacobs led the NFL last season with 1,653 yards, but the former Alabama standout entered Sunday with 408 in eight games in 2023. He hadn’t topped 77 rushing yards in any contest this season.

Against the Giants, Jacobs ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns – matching his TD total for the season – on 26 carries. Jacobs reached his first 100-yard game of the season, but his final carry lost 3 yards.

“We finished both of our drives early on with rushing touchdowns,” Pierce said. “We talked about the physicality that we wanted to play with and get Josh Jacobs going. …

“I saw that heart beating. He’s the heartbeat. He’s a Raider. When you watch Josh run, he runs angry, and he got back to that running style, what we saw last year. And it was just feed him, just go.”

On the Raiders’ first three plays, Jacobs had runs of 5, 10 and 8 yards.

“I already told them,” Jacobs said. “I said, ‘Look, on the first run, it don’t matter if it’s ugly or not, I’m going to set the tone in this game,’ because I know if I get going and I run with a certain demeanor, it gets everybody going, so I already had that on my mind.”

Las Vegas took the cue after not scoring more than 21 points in any previous 2023 game and gained 334 yards after having 157 in its previous outing, a 26-14 loss to the Detroit Lions.

The Raiders did it with Aidan O’Connell, a fourth-round rookie from Purdue, in for Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback.

“I told him, ‘Man, when in doubt, give me the ball,’” Jacobs said. “Let me be honest: That’s the first thing I told him. But he’s very poised.”

Now the Raiders get a prime-time opportunity to show if their 13th head coach since their most recent playoff victory can get Las Vegas to .500. The 4-5 Raiders host the 4-4 Jets on Sunday night.

“To me, they got the best defense in football right now,” Jacobs said, “so it’s definitely going to be a tough challenge.”

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The Alabama Games of the Week are the Houston Texans-Cincinnati Bengals and the Jets-Raiders contests on Sunday. Thirteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges are on the teams’ active rosters in each game.

The Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles do not play this week.

The complete Week 10 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from Catena):

Thursday

· Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears (-3.5), 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)

Sunday

· Indianapolis Colts (-1.5) vs. New England Patriots in Frankfurt, Germany, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)

· Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens (-6), noon

· Houston Texans at Cincinnati Bengals (-7), noon

· San Francisco 49ers (-3) at Jacksonville Jaguars, noon

· New Orleans Saints (-2.5) at Minnesota Vikings, noon (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers (-3), noon (WAKA)

· Tennessee Titans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-1), noon (WIAT, WHNT, WKRG, WTVY)

· Atlanta Falcons (-1.5) at Arizona Cardinals, 3:05 p.m.

· Detroit Lions (-3) at Los Angeles Chargers, 3:05 p.m.

· New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (-16.5), 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· Washington Commanders at Seattle Seahawks (-6), 3:25 p.m.

· New York Jets (-1) at Las Vegas Raiders, 7:20 p.m. (NBC)

Monday

· Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills (-7.5), 7:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)

CHECK OUT MAPS OF SUNDAY’S BROADCAST TV COVERAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.