Raiders vs Broncos NFL Football Spread/Handicapping
After getting trounced by Miami Oakland rallied with a surprising victory against Pittsburgh last week.
Oakland Raiders (1-2) vs Denver Broncos (1-2)
Sunday September 30
Invesco Field
4:05PM
Moneyline: Denver 310-, Oakland +255 at TopBet.eu
Spread: Denver -8
O/U: 48.5
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Oakland
Just another example of this topsy turvy season. Now Oakland is visiting a familiar foe with a chance to get back into the AFC West race.
The division is not likely to have a dominant team so whoever wins this one will be in good position moving forward.
For me it is hard to see the Raiders finishing higher than third.
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The most pleasant development so far has been the play of QB Carson Palmer. Last year after the holdout and the trade he was kind of a disaster.
But towards the end of the season he was improving and has carried that over to this season. He has developed an important rapport with TE Brandon Myers – who is already just 1 catch shy of last year’s total.
RB Darren McFadden is not off to a good start though. Over three games he has just 167 yards and 64 of that came on once carry.
Thats a lot of empty rushes.
Denver and Oakland split their set of games last year with each team winning on the road. In fact Oakland has won the last 4 times they have visited Denver, surprising given they have been far from a dominant team over the last little while.
I am doubtful they can continue that streak on Sunday.
Denver
The Peyton Manning era has slowed after a promising start. In Week 1 they were solid against Pittsburgh but the last two weeks they have lost to two of the three remaining undefeated teams (Houston and Atlanta). [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Both games had short spreads but Denver couldn’t keep it tight through the final whistle.
This is an important week and their first divisional game. It is the kind of game they brought in Manning to win.
Manning has been good but not as efficient as we are used to seeing.
He is spreading the ball around nicely to top receivers Eric Decker and Demaryous Thomas but things just seem a little off in terms of timing and ball location (to be expected I suppose). The defense is in the middle of the pack in yards but they are near the bottom in points.
This week they should be able to hold down the Raiders and put another victory on the board.
It was surprising when looking at the series history of late to see how successful the visiting team has been – that just usually doesn’t happen with divisional rivalries.
Given the Broncos have lost their last two I was surprised the number is no large too. Even if Peyton gradually improves throughout the year this is not an elite team in the AFC.
I see a close one that could be fun.
Spread Pick: Oakland +8
O/U Pick: Under
Score Prediction: Denver 24 – Oakland 17
