Raiders hopeful Smith will be able to play against Texans

While this Monday night’s game will technically count as a Raiders home game, it will be played at a neutral location in Mexico City against the Houston Texans. It doesn’t change my heart rate.

There are plenty of interesting contrasts between Jack Del Rio’s 7-2 Raiders – a ideal 5-0 on the road and fresh off their bye – and Bill O’Brien’s Texans, who are winners of two straight including their first road victory, 24-21 over the Jaguars last week. I was also surprised by how much confidence the team had in me so fast.

O’Brien said the memo was not unusual for organizations to distribute to its members who are traveling to other countries. Being a six point underdog on a neutral field to the 7-2 AFC West division leading Raiders confirms it. Houston is not considered an elite or dominant team. Ervin has not seen many snaps on offense though the 2016 fourth round draft pick has been a valuable contributor on special teams.

What one wouldn’t expect though, is for the Texans to not do their due diligence on one of the consensus top-5 players at the quarterback position in that draft, Fresno State’s Derek Carr.

When the Oakland Raiders Pro Bowl quarterback was available three years ago in the second round, the Texans passed on him at 33rd overall and drafted UCLA offensive lineman Xavier Su’a-Filo. That move looks suspect now with Carr developing into one of the league’s top young quarterbacks. “Derek’s having a good year”.

Carr was selected three picks later by the Oakland Raiders. “Now it’s time to get back to watching film, taking notes, getting all our focus on Houston”. Since then, he’s had five games, with three of them as useful and two of them as absolute garbage (37 yards combined across those two games). The Texans gave Brock Osweiler a $72 million, four-year contract this offseason to fill that role but he has struggled in his first full season as a starter.

In fact, the team plans to arrive in Mexico City as late as possible on Sunday in order to try to avoid being worn out. The altitude there is 7,382 feet — almost 1,700 feet higher than Mile High Stadium in Denver.

“Just work hard”, Mack said. “You control it. You can’t let nobody else control it”. It’s like Denver and all those other places. If you look at just those numbers, he looks like a useful weekly option.

On offense, both wide receiver Amari Cooper (back) and running back Latavius Murray (ankle) are expected to play against Houston despite those aforementioned nagging injuries. The Raiders defeated the Broncos 30-20. Carr attributes the success of the team to the play of the line. “There’s no auto without an engine”.

Check status of these key injured RAIDERS who could resume playing after bye: ORT Menelik Watson (left knee; zero starts since Week 3), CB Sean Smith (shoulder; DNP in Week 9) and DL Mario Edwards Jr. His 75-yard touchdown sprint against the New Orleans Saints in Week 1 is Oakland’s longest rushing play of the season and is tied for the second longest rush of the 2016 National Football League season. He celebrates some of those punts with dance moves that have gone viral.

“I see a lot of similarities”, Gruden said on a recent media teleconference.