Oakland poised to paint Azteca Silver & Black
ALAMEDA — Khalil Mack knows a little Spanish.
“Hola. ¿Como estas?” the Raiders defensive end offered Wednesday when quizzed on his language skills ahead of the team’s trip to Mexico City for a Monday Night Football showdown with the Houston Texans.
Mack even knows what that means. “Hey, how are you doing?,” he said, before seeking a quick confirmation.
That’s about where his Spanish skills end, which hopefully will be enough when his Raiders participate in only the second ever NFL regular season game played in Mexico City. A 2005
game between the 49ers and Arizona Cardinals was the first and the Raiders also played in a 2001 exhibition game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Unlike international games in Europe, the Raiders won’t spend any extra time in Mexico to promote the game. Both teams will simply fly in Sunday, play the game on Monday night and head home.
The Raiders gave up a home game in order to play on the Monday night stage, but expect to find a partisan crowd at legendary Estadio Azteca, which has played host to the 1968 Olympics and two World Cups. (Fittingly the Raiders will bring the Al Davis torch to be lit and have 1968 gold medal winner and civil rights activist Tommie Smith do the honors.)
“I’ve got a feeling there’s going to be a lot of Raiders fans,” ESPN analyst and former Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Wednesday on a media teleconference. “There were the last time I was there. It’ll be loud. I think it’ll be like a Raider home game.”
In lieu of promotional work in the week leading up to the game, several Raiders took trips down during the offseason and are looking forward to heading back after enjoying their experience.
“For the locals, it’s pretty much going to be a party out there,” running back/special teamer Taiwan Jones said. “A crazy, controlled environment, so I’m excited.”
Running back Latavius Murray visited Mexico City twice and was impressed with the amount of Raiders fans he saw.
“I know we have a lot of fans internationally regardless, so no I wasn’t surprised,” Murray said. “But I think it was cool to see all the Raiders fans we had.”
There’s one potential issue that defensive back TJ Carrie sees.
“I just think it’s going to be so much of an experience for them out there,” Carrie said of the fans. “When you’re at a home crowd, when the offense is up, defense is up, you’re able to kind of dim them down, control them. But I think the fans are going to be so excited and so stoked to have that environment that it’s going to be loud the whole game.”
The Raiders top two n competitors in the AFC West both scored improbable victories over the weekend while Oakland was on its bye.
The Chiefs rallied back from 17-0 to beat the Panthers on a field goal as time expired and the Broncos blocked a potential goahead extra point and returned it for two points in a 25-23 win over the Saints.
That means instead of returning to action against the Texans on Monday still in sole possession of first place, the Raiders are tied with the Chiefs at 7-2 and have the Broncos just a half-game back at 7-3.
“A crazy week for football,” Mack said. “It’s going to be a tough battle these last seven games.”
Some players took different approaches during the bye. Mack watched the Chiefs and Broncos games closely, while Murray stayed away until the Sunday night game between the Patriots and Seahawks.
The general outlook is they aren’t concerned about what their competition is doing.
“We control our own destiny,” Murray said. “We don’t want to leave it into the hands of anybody else. We need to take care of our business every game. … We do know we play in a tough division. We’ve got to come with it each week and we’re not going to let it off the gas pedal whatsoever.”
Mack agreed that the continued success of the Raiders’ division rivals will help keep them sharp, but added, “you can’t really focus on that. You have to focus on Houston.”
Quarterback Derek n Carr was named the Raiders’ nominee for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes players who exemplify outstanding sportsmanship on the field.
All 32 teams nominate a player through their public relations department and a panel selects eight finalists that appear on the Pro Bowl ballot for players to cast their votes. Former Raiders safety Charles Woodson was the 2015 winner.