ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Technically, it will be a home game for the Oakland Raiders in Mexico City when they face the Houston Texans in Estadio Azteca on Monday night.
Literally, though, Raiders coach Jack Del Rio is not counting on a home-field advantage. Not quite.
“We kind of expect it to be like a road game for the offense and special teams and home game for the defense in that our crowd is going to be really loud,” Del Rio said Thursday. “It’s going to be loud the whole time regardless of what side of the ball you’re on. That’s really how we’re approaching it.”
Renovations on the stadium have actually reduced capacity from more than 100,000 to about 87,000 and the game sold out almost immediately. And while Houston may be closer, the stadium is expected to have a certain Raiders feel to it.
But compared to the 54,597 that attended the Raiders’ last game at the Oakland Coliseum, a 30-20 defeat of the Denver Broncos, having more than 30,000 additional fans on hand will definitely raise the volume.
No matter which team they are rooting for in the first regular season game in Mexico since 2005.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said he was unsure what to expect.
“I know that when we played at Wembley [Stadium in London] ... my rookie year, it was that same kind of way,” Carr said. “You approach it that way, so whenever it’s a neutral site you just never know which way it could go. Hopefully it will just be filled with Raider fans and we’ll be good to go.”
The Raiders sent team ambassadors, including players Latavius Murray, Taiwan Jones, TJ Carrie, Justin Ellis and Malcolm Smith, on two separate trips to Mexico City over the offseason as part of fan fests and a day of the NFL draft, where Jim Plunkett announced an Oakland pick.
Del Rio was asked if he received any scouting reports on what the team should expect. Del Rio laughed and said he did not ask for any such reports.
“I just asked them to be good ambassadors, represent us with class and come back having conducted themselves properly,” he said. “That’s all. I think in each case where we’ve had players go down or people go down from our organization, I think they represented us the right way. The common theme, really, is that it’s going to be loud.
“There’s a lot of people and it’s going to be very exciting. They’re looking forward to us playing a good game down there.”