Raiders Team Headlines: Texans And Raiders Say Hello To Mexico City
By Dave Thomas
It has been a little more than a decade since the NFL had a regular season game in Mexico City.
That drought will come to an end this coming Monday evening when the Oakland Raiders "host" the Houston Texans in Mexico's capital. For both teams, the experience should provide plenty of excitement, though it's safe to say that both hope the majority of the focus is on football and not the sideshow that comes with playing football in a foreign country.
Oakland, which is coming off of its bye week, has only lost twice this season, while the Texans have dropped three games.
For both teams, the game is of critical importance as the two either lead or are close to leading their respective divisions.
In the AFC West, while Oakland is tied with Kansas City at 7-2, the Chiefs technically own first place since they defeated the Raiders earlier in the season in the Bay Area (the rematch is next month in Kansas City). Meanwhile, Houston has a 1.5-game lead over Tennessee in an AFC South that is not as strong as its AFC West counterpart. Indianapolis is having a roller coaster of a season, while Jacksonville is mired in the basement.
Oakland Has Been Perfect Away From Home
Even though many teams primarily focus on defending their home turf, the Raiders have been nothing short of perfect on the road to date.
With a 5-0 record away from Northern California this season, the Raiders have their three toughest road games in front of them in December and on New Year's Day. If Oakland can somehow sweep games in Kansas City, San Diego and Denver, it will very likely mean a division title and the team's first trip to the playoffs in over a decade.
Before getting to that point of the season, Oakland looks to take care of business south of the border come Monday in front of a sellout crowd.
One has to go back to 2005 when the NFL last had a regular season contest in Mexico City. At that time it was between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers. In the game played at Estadio Azteca, Arizona won 31-14.
Oakland, which played its only other game outside of American soil back in 2014 (lost in London to Miami 38-14), enters this Monday's game as a 5.5-point favorite over Houston. The first-ever Monday Night Football game played outside the U.S. will be televised on ESPN.
Postcards From Mexico City
Although both teams want to concentrate on this game and this game only, there are a couple of interesting storylines with these two teams meeting.
Among them:
* Family connections - Oakland QB Derek Carr (17 touchdowns, 3 INT's on the season so far) has had his name thrown around as a potential MVP candidate this season. While there is still much football to be played, Carr could end up leading the Raiders to the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade. Carr's older brother, David, was Houston's (and the NFL's) first overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft. He wound up getting a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants as a backup to Eli Manning in Super Bowl XLVI, though he never panned out to be the top draft pick Houston had hoped for.
* Expect a packed house - Given Estadio Azteca hosts about 95,000, look for a packed house come Monday evening. In the 2005 meeting between San Francisco and Arizona, more than 100,000 fans attended. Which team will have the edge as far as fan support is hard to say. The Raiders have a worldwide brand, something that was aided by winning three Super Bowls over the years. Houston, meanwhile, is more of the new kid on the block, though expect a fair amount of Texans' support come Monday evening.
