Raiders’ new Vegas home not an advantage yet.
In the COVID-19 era, the home-field advantage in the NFL isn’t what it used to be.
So when the Raiders open the second half of the season today against the Denver Broncos with the first of five games in the second half of the season at home, that may or may not be a good thing.
The Raiders are 1-2 at Allegiant Stadium and 4-1 on the road. Denver, one of their AFC West rivals, is 2-2 on the road and 1-2 at home.
When Tennessee lost a home game to Indianapolis on Thursday night, it dropped home teams to 6568-1 on the season, the lowest percentage in the last 19 years. From the time the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002, home teams have won 57 percent of the time.
“This whole experience is like the twilight zone,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Friday in a video conference. “Everything’s different, from the way we travel, the way we operate. It’s certainly different playing a home game. I don’t know what the statistics are -- that’s the first I’ve heard of that. We’ve got to play better in Vegas, I know that.”
Allegiant Stadium is one of 13 venues that is not allowing fans at games (the Meadowlands and SoFi Stadium are closed to fans and each hosts two teams).
Of the 17 teams that are allowing fans, the maximum capacity ranges from family and friends gatherings of 250 (Detroit and
Minnesota) to as many as 20,000 in Dallas at 25 percent capacity.
T he deafening roa r which can rattle opposing offenses is either a muffle or non-existent, replaced with recorded fan noise. To players, it may as well be elevator music.
“Right now without the fans, everything is just kind of like an even playing field,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “There’s no noise aspect, no hostile environment. But it’s very important that we take care of business at home because we want to protect that place.”
In the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs’ only loss came to the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium, which allows a maximum of 16,000 fans and has long been considered one of the toughest places to play. The Los Angeles Chargers fell to 1-3 at home after losing to the Raiders, the same record they have on the road.
The Baltimore Ravens are 2-2 at home and 4- 0 on the road. The 49ers are 1- 4 at home and 3-1 on the road.
Raiders owner Mark Davis decided before the season began it would be all or nothing with fans so he wouldn’t have to pick and choose among season ticket holders. The Raiders beat New Orleans in their Allegiant Stadium debut but have lost to Buffalo and Tampa Bay.
And Gruden thinks he knows why.
“We’ve only got one fan that comes to the game, so we blame Bob Stiriti our security man, he’s our only
fan,” Gruden said. “We have to get Bob Stiriti fired up to make some noise.”
Five ways the Raiders can beat the Broncos aside from ordering their head of security to yell a little louder:
1. OWN THE THIRD QUARTER >> The Raiders had a horrible end to the first half against the Chargers in Week 9 but set things right by dominating the third quarter 14-3 with two drives engineered by Carr. They’ve outscored opponents 41-19 in the third quarter and given up double digits in points only once -- a 10-point quarter in a loss to New England in Week 3.
The win over the Chiefs was scoreless in the third quarter, but the Raiders dominated the clock and set up a 16-point fourth quarter.
“I didn’t know all that, but I’m glad that we’re doing better because it was something that coach was harping,” Carr said.
Said Gruden: “It’s midseason. It’s not where you line up, it’s where you lineup.”
2. KEEP SCORING TOUCHDOWNS >> Seems ridiculously obvious, but with the way the Raiders play defense, they’ll need to keep putting the ball in the end zone. They’re 5- 3 on the strength of 24 touchdowns, eight rushing (five by Josh Jacobs) and 16 passing by Derek Carr to go along with eight field goals.
The Raiders aren’t built to score much less than their average (27.3 points per game) and survive in a second half where six of the last eight games are in indoor venues.
A year ago, the Raiders were 4- 4 at the break and the numbers weren’t dramatically different -23 touchdowns and seven field goals. The second half of the season was a different story. They got all the way to 6- 4 and then shut down, winning one of their last six games. The Raiders had just 14 touchdowns in the second half of the season and 12 field goals.
3. SLOW THE TWO-HEADED MONSTER >> The Raiders are in the middle of the pack in run defense, giving up 118.5 yards per game. They’ve only been truly awful once, and that was in Week 3 against New England (250 yards), which also happens to be their worst loss when taking into account the caliber of opposition.
The Broncos will have both Melvin Gordon (396 yards) and Phillip Lindsey (310) available at full health. Ideally, the Broncos would like to take a page from the Raiders playbook and strive for balance. That would enable second-year quarterback Drew Lock a chance to compete on more even terms with Carr.
Nick Kwiatkoski, who had 13 tackles last week, is emerging as a reliable run defender for the Raiders. Shutting down the run would give the Raiders more pass-rush opportunities against Lock after getting some decent pressure on Justin Hebert against the Chargers. Pressure on Lock is the key to producing a takeaway or two.
4. GET BIG PLAYS FROM WALLER >> Gruden and Carr are still kicking themselves over a late first-half play which had tight end Darren Waller running free down the field for a potential 68yard touchdown play — only to have the Chargers Jerry Tillery strip-sack Carr and recover the fumble and give the Chargers a gift field goal.
Waller’s 50 catches are second only to Travis Kelce in the NFL, but his 394 yards and 7.9 yards per reception with a long gain of 23 are hard to justify. Waller’s five catches against the Chargers gained 22 yards, a 4.4 average, which was less than the rushing averages of both Devontae Booker (8.5) and Jacobs (4.6).
“He has a tight end body with wide receiver abilities,” Denver coach Vic Fangio said. “It’s hard to give him the attention you’d like with the new receivers they’ve added in (Henry) Ruggs and (Nelson) Agholor.”
Whether Waller or talented second-year Denver tight end Noah Fant does more damage could have more impact than the Ruggs-Jerry Jeudy duel of Alabama wide receivers turned division rivals.
5. AVOIDING A BIG HEAD >> The Chiefs lost their only game to the Raiders and are next on the schedule after Denver at Allegiant Stadium.
Could the Raiders get caught looking ahead with visions of a sweep of the defending Super Bowl champions and Patrick Mahomes dancing in their heads? The sign of a good team is finding a winning formula and sticking to it, regardless of the uniform color on the other side.
“We don’t look past anybody. We have enough issues right now,” Gruden said. “We’re just trying to get ready for the next day and the next game and that’s all Denver. We’ve got a lot of respect for them, believe me. We’ve competed against them in the past, know them well and they know us well.”