OK fellas time to hold your nose and back one of the worst teams in the NFL here. This is about as good of a situational play as there is in the NFL all year IMO. Lets count the ways. First off the owner Mark Davis had a fairly public display of displeasure for Dennis Allen a couple weeks back while boarding the plane home from Cincy after Cincy plastered them. He then followed that up by coaching his team to a home loss to the Cleveland Browns. In the past week Dennis Allen has not been with the team because the death of his Father. He will be basically flying home following the funeral just to coach the team tonight. The team may not like this guy much but they will be able to relate to the very human side of his story tonight and they will play with emotion in a way that they have not for weeks IMO.
This is the Raiders superbowl for all intents and purposes. Their last primetime game, at home, vs a team that beat them by 31 earlier in the year and vs the team that just clinched the AFC west last week. If thats not enough the oddsmakers have dogged them by 10.5 points here to boot, if you think the players dont see the odds your lying to yourself. Most people know about the home dog thing by a TD or more but I believe divisional home dogs of double digits hit above 80% in the last five or so years, and probably even longer than that.
The Raiders will be getting DMC and Goodson back for this game as well and both will be fully healthy. This is huge, enough said.
Now the other side of the coin. The Broncos just clinched the AFC west 4 days ago and have to travel on a short week to play a team that they just beat by 31 a few weeks back. Their chances of overtaking Houston as the home field advantage team are slim to none. They have almost no motivation to blow this team out here tonight other than the hated Raiders angle which can never be dismissed in this matchup. I just see them doing barely enough to walk out of here with a win and get their 10 days rest. The Broncos have not covered a double digit spread all season long, in fact they have lost the last three in a row ATS. They really have been a team that has kept many of their opponents in the game till the last few mins on a consistent basis.
Anyway there is quite a bit to like tonight about the Raiders but keep in mind, this team fucking stinks in a bad way and that is coming from a huge Raiders fan. It would not surprise me in the least to see the Broncos stomp them into the ground tonight again but my money is on a huge effort from the Raiders.
GL
