Rotational depth key as Raiders take on Texans in Mile HIGH on steroids (Azteca)
Derek Carr and Latavius Murray lead the 7-2 Oakland Raiders into Azteca stadium for Monday Night Football vs. the Texans.
All day long people have been flooding in commentary about tonight's game being played in the rare air of Azteca Stadium (7300 feet) and how the smog and pollution is going to be a problem for the players tonight.
As if....the Olympians swam and rowed through shit in Brazil, somehow ya gotta figure the players are going to be ok, albeit with the help of a few hits of oxygen from time to time.
That said, 7300 feet makes Denver's little, mile-high stadium look like chump change. Visiting teams that come to mile high, sometimes have trouble with that altitude. Throw in another 1300 feet and a depends-on-the-recent weather smog/fog/haze and ya gotta figure depth will be a factor tonight.
* Running backs - While Latavius Murray looked terrific against Denver and the Oakland Raider running game roughed-up the Broncos with 200 plus yards on the ground, Houston is well aware of what Murray did and will likely be a focal point of the defense. Key to winning will be getting some extra production out of Richard and Washington -
* Andre Holmes and Seth Roberts might see significant action: Hey man, running four or five decoy fly patterns in Oakland is one thing but doing it at 7300 feet is quite another. The Raiders float Holmes and Roberts into the equation often enough, and you might see more of them tonight to give Cooper and Crabtree a blow.
* Denico Autry's time to shine: As poorly as Brock Osweiler has played, 11 TD's and 9 pics, ya look up and Houston is sitting there with a 6-3 record. Houston isn't very good at stopping the run (20th) but the Texans are 4th in total defense and 3rd against the pass. While the Raiders have been the talk of the NFL world today, there seems to be a little under-current that this defense isn't close to where the offense is. Maybe in the first four games but the Oakland D forced nine three-and-outs against Denver and they seem to be jelling as a unit.
Osweiler must go down and go down early. Sure, Khalil Mack is going to get his and Bruce Irvin will be flying around the Qb, but the subs, guys like Autry and Dan Williams and Darius Latham will need to elevate their play during the snaps they get. Same thing with the CB's as you might see Nate Allen and DJ Hayden playing a few more snaps.
The Raiders came off the bye week in 2015 sizzling with big wins over the Chargers and the Jets. Look for Oakland to be firing on all cylinders and send a message to the rest of the NFL that this team is for real!
Raiders 34 (missed extra point), Texans 21.
Cheers to you Raider Nation welcome back to Prime Time...
