Thursday NFL - Raiders @ New England

[Tinfish]

Raiders +7.5

WHY?
First lets talk about Oakland......People comment on there POOR road play which I believe is somewhat untrue. In the second Half of last season Oakland won @ Carolina , @ Denver and lost by 1 @ KC on a last second FG. Those are three pretty tough places to win this was all sandwiched around a uninspiring loss @ Atlanta.

Oakland has added a RB in Lamont Jordan who should be able to allow them to control the time of possession better then it did last year. Obviously they added a premier WR in Randy Moss to an already stocked group. More importantly there defense showed tremendous improvement in this preseason{yes its only preseason but still}. The one thing that bothers me is with the injuries to WR's there offense did not perform all that well in the preseason.

For NE its simple we all know what has happened. They have lost some talented defensive players as well as two coordinators. Yes, NE always rebuilds but I think they will need time to gel and grow into these new positions. I really feel that Charlie Weis was what made this offense tough to figure. Just look at how he dismantled PITT in his 1 game as a HC!! So I think the Offense could struggle early especially with Brady's limited reps in the preseason due to his shoulder and the injuries to some of the wideouts. Overall it appears on paper that the team has fallen back to the pack some this year.

Factor in the fact that IMO in all sports team raising a Championship banner always sttruggle in that game especially if they are favored and especially if they are a big chalk. Look at the last two openers for NE. They were extremely unimpressive vs Indy in the opener last year and being that its only SEPT the weather is a non factor at the moment .

NE @ Home last year......
WK1 vs Indy W27-24 in an unimpressive outing where the COLTS handed them a win.
WK5 vs Miami W24-10 ....Lets see how bad was Miami last year?? I know NE lost to them on MNF in a collapse......please!
WK6 vs Seattle W30-20 a team that had to travel cross country for a 1 PM start hung with NE all day and the key was NE goal line stand late that cost SEA backers a cover.
WK7 vs NYJ W 13-7 again another uninspiring win.
WK 10 BUF W 29-6 looks impressive BUT this was before the light bulb turned on in Buffalo as the Bills dropped to 3-6.
WK 12 BALT W24-3...NO Jamal Lewis! a 3-3 tie @ HALF and a 6-3 game after three quarters.....again why be impressed.
WK 14 CIN W 35-28....You look at this game and you will see 500 yards of offense despite Palmer only playing a HALF. The differences were 3 turnovers and two in the red zone!
WK 17 W21-7 ......yeah the 49ers th worst team in FOOTBALL!!

Think about who after INDY did you think had a legit shot @ Winning @ NE??? All the decent teams Seattle , NYJ and Cincy played them tough with Baltimore missing Jamal Lewis. Trust me I am not kknocking NE for doing there job for 8 games but rather pointing out they had very favorable matchups!

IMO Oakland falls into the Seattle and Cincy category of decent defenses with solid offense who could give NE a game.

[SloppyJo]

new england by 10... and tom brady looked damn good, like always.. but their running game looked like shit