This year has been, let’s say, a bit different than most.
The Covid-19 pandemic has altered life — for the time being — in countless ways. NFL football is no different, with daily testing for players and staff, socially-distanced team facilities and the creation of the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
The most obvious change, however, is the vast reduction of fans in the stands, with some franchises, such as the Raiders, choosing to have no fans at all. It’s an unimaginable situation, with Las Vegas playing its first year in brand new Allegiant Stadium.
Without the Raider Nation to cheer them on, the club has a 1-2 record at Allegiant thus far. But that’s not an outlier. In total, NFL teams have a losing record at home this season, at 61-71-1. When told that fact, coach Jon Gruden said he wasn’t aware, but he didn’t sound surprised, due to the changed conditions in 2020. And he referenced a science fiction classic to hammer his point home.
“You know this whole experience is a little bit like the “Twilight Zone,” really,” Gruden told reporters on Friday. “It’s different. Everything is different, from the way that we travel, the way that we operate and it’s certainly different playing a home game. But we’ve got to play better in Vegas. I know that and we better play better because Denver is coming in here and they’re a good football team.”
The Raiders have already played some good football teams at home, beating the Saints on Monday Night football before losing to the Bills and Buccaneers — with each game certainly feeling a bit eerie without fans. But quarterback Derek Carr knows the team has to step its game up to overcome the challenges and create a home-field advantage, if at all possible.
“Obviously, we played some good football teams at home, and we haven’t done our job well enough,” Carr told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s easier to do it with the fans, the atmosphere and all that kind of stuff. I feel like right now without the fans, everything is just kind of like an even playing field.
“The communication, there’s no noise aspect; there’s no hostile environment.”
While the entire league is impacted by a lack of fans to a certain extent, it’s especially difficult on teams with brand-new stadiums, such as the Raiders. While the building has a special, fresh feeling, it doesn’t have an identity — not until fans are allowed inside.
“We love playing in our stadium,” Gruden told reporters on Wednesday. “We have tremendous respect for who we represent. It sickens us that we can’t play in front of our fans, but we have to do better.”
The Raiders appear to be ready to take that step. They’ve made up for the poor home record with an excellent road record thus far, at 4-1. Carr looks like his former MVP-candidate self, the offensive line has persevered through injuries and the young defense hasn’t let go of the rope as they learn on the job.
And this would be an especially great week to start a winning tradition at home, with the division rival Broncos coming to Vegas. It’s the first AFC West team to come to Allegiant, and if all goes according to Carr’s plans, division rivals will eventually be wary of the new stadium, and not because it’s a bit spooky at the moment.
“For us, as a team, it’s very important that we take care of business at home because we want to protect that place,” Carr said. “We want to make that place special, where people are like, ‘Man, we got to go play the Raiders,’ there is a feeling in their stomach like, ‘Ah, dang.’ So, that’s not going to happen unless we earn that, and we got to earn that right by winning some football games at home.”
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