Sunday, October 11th
Las Vegas Raiders @ New England Patriots, 1:00 PM ET
Before the season began, we probably would have looked at this game as being a New England Patriots blowout victory, as the Las Vegas Raiders were hysterically bad last year and again needed to make a change at head coach and QB.
Well, the tables have turned big-time, as the Patriots have the second-best starting QB in this game, and have the second-best team. New England did get back on track in Week 4 with an absolutely huge win over the Buffalo Bills - and I can't stress enough how big of a win that was for the franchise.
They were spiraling a bit, as QB Drake Maye had largely been horrendous coming into Week 4, but he and the team rebounded nicely with a very gritty win.
As for the Raiders, they dropped to 3-1 on the season after a tough, perhaps 'good' loss to Kansas City. I am sure not a single soul in the Raiders building would say there is such a thing as a good loss, but the Raiders being able to hang with the Chiefs as they did was impressive.
And I am not sure the Raiders lose two in a row here. The Patriots have still played more bad football than good football this year, but the total opposite is true for the Raiders. Both offenses do have the chance to put up a ton of points, and this could simply come down to which team possesses the ball last.
In that even, give me the Raiders. It's wild to say, but you would probably trust Kirk Cousins and Klint Kubiak over Maye and Mike Vrabel at the moment. We're picking the Raiders to win this game by a field goal.
Prediction: Raiders win 27-24
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