Whatever its name at kickoff time in a given year, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was often unkind to the Pittsburgh Steelers when they played the Oakland Raiders. Indeed, they were 1-4 on the road against the Oakland Raiders after they moved back there in 1995, including four straight losses, the most recent in 2018—but more on that later.
While he won’t be out on the field, DL Cameron Heyward is just glad the Steelers don’t have to play on that field anymore—and he’s hoping the change of venue will also bring a change of fortune. “We don’t fare very well on the road, and hopefully we can change that”, he said on his Not Just Football podcast yesterday as the Steelers prepare to face the Raiders, now in Las Vegas.
“This is our first time in their new stadium. All those years back, we played at the Raiders’ old stadium, which was a piece of crap, if I’m being honest”, he added. “It was a baseball field. [K Chris] Boswell slipping to make a kick and missed it. There’s been multiple times in that stadium that I just hated it”.
Heyward is referencing the last time the Steelers played out in Oakland in 2018, a mid-December loss that featured Boswell slipping while attempting a game-tying 40-yard field goal with five seconds to spare that would have sent the game into overtime.
You might recall that as Boswell’s No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Year, during which he missed seven out of 20 field goal attempts as well as five extra points. It was after this game that the Steelers brought in multiple kickers for tryouts, Boswell winning his job back against the competition. For Heyward, though, it was about the playing surface.
“You go onto the field, you warm up, and it’s just dirt. It’s nothing more. And it’s not like a football grass. It’s baseball fields. It literally looks like you’re playing on a sandlot”, he said, recalling other bad memories there, like the 93-yard touchdown run by QB Terrelle Pryor.
“I guess they were more equipped at the time to play on that field. You can’t make excuses, but I’m glad that field is gone”, he said of that field, adding, “That field, man, we can burn that. We can blow it up…It’s not even a grass versus turf thing. It’s just a no-field versus a field at that point”.
The Raiders have been in Las Vegas for four seasons now. The Steelers beat them just last year but in Pittsburgh. They have not faced them on the road since the move, as Heyward said, so this will be their first in-person look at the new stadium, Allegiant, which was completed in November 2017. It is set to host the Super Bowl this season.
As far as the grass versus turf debate goes, Allegiant Stadium actually has both—including a roll-in grass field on which the Raiders play. UNLV prefers to play on a turf field; additionally, having two separate playing surfaces reduces the wear and tear on the grass field, as Acrisure Stadium field crew members will understand very well. They change out the grass multiple times a year.
