For more than a decade, the NFL has been taking its game abroad looking to attract new fans and new markets to football.When the Oakland Raiders take on the Houston Texans on Monday night in Mexico City, the fans at Azteca Stadium will see something no foreign audience has ever gotten the chance to watch: two teams with winning records.Instead of watching the dregs of the league, the sold-out crowd at the renovated Azteca Stadium will see a game with playoff implications when the Raiders (7-2) take on the Texans (6-3) in a matchup of first-place teams.Despite the big stage, high stakes and international flair, it still is just one game.We know if you dont win, it doesnt mean anything. Its a cool thing to look back on someday, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. It doesnt change the game for me. It doesnt change my heart rate. It stays the same.The Raiders enter the game on a roll having won three straight games before a bye, capped by a 30-20 prime-time win over defending Super Bowl champion Denver on Nov. 6. That has Oakland off to its best start since 2001 as the team hopes to end a 13-year playoff drought .The Texans have won two straight and are in sole possession of first place in the AFC South, but have gotten much less publicity for their record than Oakland. In part, thats because Houston has been outscored by 27 points with lopsided losses to New England, Minnesota and Denver overshadowing the wins.A victory against a Raiders team that has been so impressive of late would be a big step forward for the TexansI think every single week is a statement game, Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler said. When you look across the National Football League, every single week is different. You see one team maybe blow out somebody one week and then the next week they get blown out, or a win and then the next week they lose. So, I think every single week you need to go out there and prove yourself.Here are some other things to watch:WRONG CARR: After David Carr failed to develop into a franchise quarterback when Houston drafted him with its first pick as an expansion team in 2002, the Texans twice passed on his little brother in 2014. Houston took pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney with the first overall pick, then guard Xavier Sua-Filo at the top of the second round -- three picks before Derek went to Oakland. That move looks suspect now with Carr developing into one of the leagues top young quarterbacks.We chose who we chose and were happy with who we chose, coach Bill OBrien said. Dereks having a good year.MACK ATTACK: The Raiders were very happy with Houstons draft that year. They ended up with edge rusher Khalil Mack with the fifth pick and he has outperformed Clowney so far with 26 sacks to Clowneys 7 +. Then they got Carr in the second round.Mack has sacks in four straight games and is looking forward to a rematch with Osweiler after sacking him five times in one game last year in Denver.We are well aware of what Khalil Macks capable of doing -- obviously I experienced it firsthand last year -- and we will have answers for him, Osweiler said.HIGHER GROUND: Both teams will have to deal with the altitude for the game played at an elevation of 7,350 feet. The teams wont arrive in Mexico until Sunday in hopes of limiting the effects of the altitude, and they spent the week preparing for it.Just work hard, Mack said. You cant really control the elevation. Its like Denver and all those other places. Just get ready and expect you might have a hard time breathing.OAKLANDS ENGINE: The Raiders have invested heavily in the offensive line the past few years by signing free agents Rodney Hudson, Kelechi Osemele, Donald Penn and Austin Howard and it is paying big dividends now. Oakland has allowed a league-low 11 sacks and has run the ball effectively of late, especially two weeks ago against Denver when the Raiders gained 218 yards on the ground. Carr attributes the success of the team to the play of the line.He calls us the engine, Penn said. Theres no car without an engine.PUNT PARTY: Marquette King had big shoes to fill in Oakland back in 2013 when he replaced six-time All-Pro Shane Lechler as Raiders punter. King has thrived and leads the NFL this season with 21 punts of at least 50 yards. He celebrates some of those punts with dance moves that have gone viral. While Lechler is impressed by his successors kicking leg, the dance moves are something else.Unfortunately, I have, Lechler said when asked whether he had seen any of the dances.---AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this report---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Pierre Turgeon Jersey .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. Artturi Lehkonen Jersey http://www.cheapcanadiensjerseyschina.com/larry-robinson-jersey/ . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Andrew Shaw Jersey . Despite the cost, effort and an improved steroid test, its possible that very few -- if any -- positives will be detected, Dr. Richard Budgett told The Associated Press in an interview. "We just dont know what the results from Torino will be," Budgett said. Discount Canadiens Jerseys .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Theres no other way to say this. Australias cricketers are presently in the grip of the kind of slide that has historically ended careers.A fourth consecutive defeat, sealed with more than a session to spare by a South Africa side minus AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, is Australias worst run of losses since six in a row in 2013. The coach Mickey Arthur was sacked by Cricket Australia between the fourth and the fifth.To find another instance of four or more consecutive losses the clock must be wound back all the way to 1984, when the Australian Cricket Board (in its infinite wisdom) scheduled 10 consecutive Tests against West Indies at their mightiest. Kim Hughes led Australia through five straight defeats before resigning in tears at the Gabba. Allan Borders first Test as captain was a sixth loss in a row.Venture further still into the past, to the divisive days of the World Series Cricket split, and another loss of five Tests in a row - four to Mike Brearleys England and one to a Sarfraz Nawaz-inspired Pakistan in 1978-79. Graham Yallop - having predicted a six-nil Ashes victory - was relieved of his command after a 5-1 series defeat. Hughes was duly in command for the Pakistan loss at the MCG, during which time Kerry Packer and the board chairman Bob Parish met to discuss a much-needed truce in the cricket war.What does all this say? That the system can only take so much strain before it breaks. Another recent example of course is the summer of 2010-11. Three innings defeats in the one Ashes series, while not consecutive, humiliated Australian cricket at home. those results ushered the end of Ricky Pontings captaincy, Tim Nielsens coaching tenure and the breaking up of the selection panel chaired by the part-timer Andrew Hilditch. Those changes were wrought by the Argus review, a major undertaking that enshrined numerous alterations to how the national team was run.Five years on, and that document still takes pride of place in the personal collection of the team performance manager Pat Howard, among others. But as already discussed, the mixed priorities illustrated by the move of the first Test of the summer from the Gabba to the WACA, and the scheduling of a solitary Sheffield Shield match - under lights with a pink ball at that - place fresh scrutiny on decision-making in the halls of CAs Jolimont headquarters.ddddddddddddIntriguingly, the CA board recently hosted a presentation by the New South Wales chairman John Warn and chief executive Andrew Jones on how they turned around the fortunes of the games most populous state. Independent governance at director level should ensure CAs CEO, James Sutherland, is kept on his toes. So too should a mood for change at senior executive level - Kate Banozic and Mike McKenna have gone, while the former board director Kevin Roberts has come in, alongside a newly promoted head of finance in Todd Shand. Pressure, too, must fall on the coach Darren Lehmann, despite his recent signing of a renewed deal to see him through to 2019. Earlier in this match, he offered up familiar homilies to ABC Radio about the quality of the individuals currently in the dressing room, how hard they were working and how great their attitudes were. This extended not just to the players but also to support staff including David Saker, Graeme Hick and Lehmanns old state team-mate Greg Blewett - nominally the fielding coach.They do all the prep, theyre great young men, theyre trying to do as well as they can for Australia each and every time, its just a case of making little mental lapses at times, Lehmann had said. Collectively were always pretty positive, but stats will show we havent batted as well as we would have liked the last few Test matches. Theres no hiding the fact weve got to bat better.Theres always pressure when youre coaching your country or playing for the country, thats why the guys have got to where theyve got to. Theyve been brilliant doing all the work behind the scenes and playing at the level below, now theyve got to do it at this level.True as this all is, the fact is that the Australian team is not a club side defined by how well everyone gets along with each other. It is a representative team brought together to win matches. As one former captain said recently: If you ask me to choose between a happy team and a winning one, Ill take the winning one every time.Australia have passed the point where they can keep whistling merrily towards defeat. There should be consequences, and soon. ' ' '