Week 11: Oakland vs San Diego Expert Preview
In Week 11 of the NFL season we will see a match-up between the Oakland Raiders (0-9) and the San Diego Chargers (5-4) at Qualcomm Stadium. Cappers Picks will provide free NFL picks all season.
AFC West rivals San Diego and Oakland will battle it out this Sunday in a game that may be a bit tough to get excited for.
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Oakland vs. San Diego
When: Sunday, Nov. 16 2014 at 4:05 pm ET
Where: Qualcomm Stadium
TV: CBS
NFL Week 11 ATS Gambling Line: Chargers -10
NFL Week 11 Gambling O/U Line: 45
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The Raiders remain the only winless team in the NFL while the Chargers have been in a downward spiral and are quickly seeing their playoff window close.
As mentioned above, this isn’t exactly the most tantalizing game to get up for.
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The season is all but over for the Raiders, who aren’t playing for much besides pride and a top draft pick next year. The Chargers meanwhile started their 2014 campaign with such promise and looked as if they would challenge Denver for AFC West supremacy but have been miserable of late and are stuck in a three game losing skid.
These two have already met once this season and it could be argued that it was the one maybe didn’t knock the wheels off the Chargers’ wagon, but it certainly loosened a few bolts (get it? bolts? chargers? I tried…)
Chargers
The Chargers had been rolling along at 4-1 until they met the Raiders on October 12 and barely escaped with a 31-28 win and pushed their record to 5-1 and into a tie atop the AFC West. Whether that game was a shot to their confidence or the team was just coming back to earth, it was their last win and they’ve racked up three losses since.
At 5-4 the Chargers have been overtaken by the Chiefs and are now in third in the West. Winning the division is a very tough ask at this point and with Miami, Pittsburgh and Baltimore all at 6-4, and KC and Cleveland at 6-3 the race for a wild card isn’t going to be any stroll in the park either. San Diego needs to start winning and they need to do it soon, as in now.
With games against the Patriots, Broncos, 49ers, and Chiefs on the horizon, this team is in tough.
Where has it gone wrong? The lack of a run attack has been a major problem for the offense, as they’re managing just shy of 82 yards per game on the ground (30th in the NFL). QB Phillip Rivers has not been able to overcome that number and has fired six interceptions in his last three games against five touchdowns.
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Without a run game to speak of, those numbers just aren’t good enough to win in the NFL.
Either Rivers needs to be near perfect or the Chargers need to find a run game in a hurry.
Raiders
There’s not much to say about the winless Raiders. You used to be able to say, “well they’ve been keeping games close” but at some point you have to be on the winning end of those close games.
That statement about being close doesn’t even ring true anymore as the Raiders were blown out at the hands of the Broncos last week.
San Diego’s run game has been bad, Oakland’s has been worse as they are managing a league-worst 62.1 yards of rushing per game. Their two rushing touchdowns is also the worst in the NFL. Well that’s probably because they’re a pass heavy offense right? Wrong.
The Raiders are averaging a measly 219 yards through the air (24th in the league).
You can have a top five defense in the NFL, when you’re averaging a league worst 281 yards of offense per game, you just aren’t going to win too many football games.
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For comparison sake: The Broncos average 317 yards of offense per week, and that’s just their passing yards.
Oakland has to be the runaway favourite for the first overall pick next year.
Week 11 Raiders vs. Chargers 4* Free Pick
San Diego’s bye week couldn’t have come at a much better time. They were stomped 37-0 by the Dolphins to push their losing skid to three games but they’ve now had two weeks to recover from that.
The Raiders are bad; couple that with the fact that this is a must win game for San Diego if they want to keep their slim hopes of making the post season alive. I expect the Chargers to come out and dominate the Raiders and easily march out win a victory of more than 10 points.
Go with San Diego to cover.
Check out our Updated NFL Week 11 Odds.
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