Raiders should have ‘home’ field advantage against Chargers

ALAMEDA, Calif. — When the Raiders take the field at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, they’ll likely be met with cheers — despite playing on the road.

The temporary home of the Chargers has become notorious for allowing visiting fans to take over the stadium. The Eagles were perhaps the first to notably do so back in 2017. Even last week, the soccer field was filled with purple as Vikings fans made their way there.

While the Raiders don’t have a winning record, their fan base in Southern California is still strong from the team’s time in Los Angeles from 1982-1994 — which should mean a lot of silver in black in the stands to drown out the powder blue.

“I think the Chargers try and do a good job of not selling the tickets to Raiders fans. They try at least, but it’ll be a lot of Raider fans in that building, just as it always was in San Diego, just like it always is in L.A.,” quarterback Derek Carr said. “Our Raider support in Los Angeles is unbelievable.”

Wide receiver Tyrell Williams has firsthand knowledge of what it feels like to play in Carson as the “home” team, having been with the Chargers for the first four years of his career from 2015-2018. With two seasons of calling it home, Williams said the 27,000-seat venue is “weird’ to play in.

“Especially when I played for them, just the atmosphere in there, you never really have a home field advantage,” Williams said.

While that kind of disadvantage seems like it could potentially weigh heavily on a team, Williams said he and his teammates found it more annoying than anything else — especially because the team went 12-4 last year.

“I feel like when I was on the team, we handled it pretty well. We played pretty well at home. And we started to really just adapt to it and kind of use that as fuel,” Williams said. “I think they’re probably doing the same thing now.”

But, Williams is looking forward to coming into that building and having the crowd be on his side.

“I feel like playing for the Raiders now, going back there, I feel like it’ll feel like a home game for us,” Williams said. “It’s going to be interesting just what it feels like to be on the other end, going into that stadium.”

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Contact Myles Simmons at msimmons@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @MylesASimmons on Twitter.