The Oakland Raiders and head coach Tom Cable look for their second win when they travel to Arizona this Sunday afternoon. With Al Davis still calling the shots, Cable needs a strong season or he’s going to be looking for another job.
The St. Louis Rams (0-1) hope the promising debut of rookie Sam Bradford will translate to a victory in his first road game when they visit the Oakland Raiders (0-1) on Sunday. The Rams are 3-point underdogs on the pro football lines against the Raiders but liked what they saw for the most part from Bradford, who threw for 253 yards and his first career touchdown in a 17-13 home loss to Arizona last week.
With one week in the books, the picture gets a little clearer on who can score. Here is a handicapping breakdown and quick look at the totals for Week 2 in the National Football League:
The Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders both look to be much-improved in 2010 as they meet in the regular-season opener on Sunday in Nashville. Oakland has surprisingly covered six of the last seven meetings between the teams (including preseason and postseason) but enters this tough road game at Tennessee as a 6-point underdog by the NFL oddsmakers.
Every year there’s a handful of rookies who help their team right away. Let’s take a look at some of the rookies in 2010 that will make a significant impact on their teams and the NFL odds.
Saturday night is the annual NFL preseason Battle of the Bay with the Oakland Raiders hosting the San Francisco 49ers. The two teams have been impressive in preseason play. The Raiders went into Dallas in week 1 and came away with a 17-9 victory, and then took care of the Bears in Chicago, 32-17. San Fran also sports a 2-0 record having beaten the Colts in Indy, 37-17, and the Vikings at home, 15-10. With bragging rights on the line, this promises to be an entertaining contest.
The battle of unbeatens by the Bay will take place on Saturday when the San Francisco 49ers (2-0) visit the Oakland Raiders (2-0). Both teams have covered their last three games dating back to last season and are hoping to parlay a winning preseason into a successful regular season. The Raiders opened at -2.5 by the NFL odds makers but have since been bet down to -1 against the 49ers.
The Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears are set to do battle Saturday night at Soldier Field in Chicago. Both teams are looking to improve on disappointing seasons last year. The silver and black made a significant upgrade at quarterback, adding Jason Campbell from Washington. Da Bears added defensive superstar Julius Peppers from Carolina, underrated running back Chester Taylor from Minnesota, and look forward to a healthy Brian Urlacher. 2010 promises to be a better season for both clubs.
The Dallas Cowboys will be playing for the second time in five days and look to build off an impressive 19-7 win over Cincinnati in the Hall of Fame Game when they host the Oakland Raiders on Thursday. The Cowboys are solid favorites at -3 at Bookmaker and 5Dimes at the time of publish. They played outstanding defense against the Bengals, who did not score until the final minute of the game. Meanwhile, the Raiders hope they can begin to turn their fortunes around with a good preseason showing at Dallas.
The problem right now for most sports bettors is that the football season is so close that’s alluring, camps are underway, week 1 NFL lines are posted, but there is still a whole pile of time to kill between now and the first meaningful kickoff. Far too long. In an attempt to kill some of that time while still being productive, I thought I’d take a look back at the teams that have been consistently good against the spread over the last five season, and those that have been consistently bad. The reasoning is that the five year time frame smooths out some of the flukes and unexplainable one year glitches – like the year Cleveland was actually good – and gives us a more meaningful long term picture. Before we look at what I found, I’m going to be like a bad comedian and tell the punchline before the joke – it’s really striking here that the teams that have been consistently solid against the spread are the teams that have been consistently very good, and the ones that have consistently burned money are the terrible teams. In this regard at least, the betting public is right in their NFL pick loyalties: