anyone know when oakland and houston got there?
Link: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/11...ffect-raiders-and-texans-game-in-mexico-city/
MEXICO CITY — The Raiders and Houston Texans will be in rarefied air on Monday night. Literally.
Forget Denver and its mile high altitude. Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca takes playing at elevation to new heights, checking in at 7,349 feet — more than 2,000 feet higher than Denver.
“You definitely can feel it,” said Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who played a game at Wyoming and it’s 7,215 feet of elevation as a senior at Fresno State.
There’s no doubt in the mind of Dr. Andrew Subudhi of the University of Colorado’s Altitude Research Center that the Raiders and Texans will feel it. Based out of UC’s Colorado Springs campus, Subudhi regularly consults with U.S. Olympians and other sports teams on dealing with competition at altitude.
Subudhi said the difference between Denver’s elevation — Sports Authority Field at Mile High is 5,280 feet — is significant.
“Even people in Denver feel it going to 7,000 feet,” Subudhi said. “It’s noticeable. There’s no doubt about it.”
The altitude is why the Raiders won’t travel into Mexico City until roughly 24 hours before the game, with them scheduled to arrive around 7 p.m. local time on Sunday. The Texans will also travel in on Sunday.
There’s a theory that arriving so close to game time will prevent them from experiencing many of the symptoms associated with high elevation. Subudhi isn’t convinced it’s the soundest theory.
“I’ve always been very concerned with that strategy because I think it’s confusing a couple things that go on and it’s an oversimplification that I think can actually lead to detrimental performance rather than an improvement in performance,” Subudhi said.
The concerns, according to Subudhi, is that symptoms do tend to not crop up immediately, but can start showing up after about five or six hours. He estimates about 30 percent could experience headaches and flu-like symptoms, which could impede that night’s sleep.
Raiders head strength and conditioning coach Joe Gomes declined to be interviewed for this story and the team is trying to keep it coy regarding its plans to deal with the altitude.
“We’re trying to keep it in house, anything we’re doing,” wide receiver Amari Cooper said when asked if he was training with the use of an elevation mask. The masks restrict oxygen to prepare athletes for the low-oxygen conditions of such high altitudes.
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio was also limited in how much he was willing to discuss about the elevation.
“We understand some of the issues that are there, potentially,” Del Rio said. “That’s been addressed. We’ll put our plan together.”
Left tackle Donald Penn played in high altitude in college at Utah State — it’s about 4,500 feet in Logan, Utah — and understands the challenge.
“I’m not going to sit here and sugar coat it — it’s going to be tough,” Penn said. “The thing is, whenever that second wind hits, then you’re good. But you hope that second wind hits early.”
Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden coached an exhibition game in Mexico City in 2001 and remembers treating it similarly to playing a game in Denver.
“I tried not to make a real big deal of it,” Gruden said. “It’s hard enough to go on the road on foreign soil and play in a place you’ve never been before.”
Several Raiders took promotional trips to Mexico City in the offseason and all of them said they didn’t feel too bothered by the elevation. The problem is none of them were doing any high-intensity workouts.
“I wasn’t too active out there,” said running back/special teamer Taiwan Jones, who said he went for a jog once. “I mingled and played with the kids, so I didn’t really feel it. I can only imagine once we start the game and really compete, we’ll probably feel it.”
An additional challenge comes with the placement of the locker room, which were built for this game but are in the parking lot. The teams will essentially have to climb up through the stands and outside the stadium to reach their lockers after both pregame warmups and at halftime.
“I didn’t know that,” Penn said. “That’s a first.”
If there’s a best possible strategy to combat the issues for the Raiders — beyond the typical hydrate, hydrate, hydrate — it’d be to follow the game plan they used in their win over the Denver Broncos.
Fatigue typically affects a defense more because it has less control over the tempo of the game. Against the Broncos, the Raiders opened the game with four straight three-and-outs on defense and their offense possessed the ball for 41 minutes and 28 seconds.
“If we could just stay off the field and keep the ball in our offense’s hands,” cornerback David Amerson said, “We’ll be good.”
GL
