New England Patriots vs Las Vegas Raiders: Gruden's revenge time

No more "Checkdown" Carr

What a performance by the Raiders on MNF! Derek Carr entered this season with a chip on his shoulder, according to some of his interviews. He said that he's tired of being doubted and he's going to prove everybody wrong this season. If he continues the way he played in the first two games, he'll succeed in his mission. So far, he threw for more than 500 yards, 4 touchdowns and zero interceptions with a 73.5% completion percentage. Especially that MNF performance vs the Saints was very impressive. He was picking Saints secondary apart with no mercy, despite missing two of his best offensive lineman.

His go-to guy was Darren Waller, who had a monster day with 12 catches for 105 yards and a touchdown. He humiliated Malcolm Jenkins on several occasions, displaying all of his potential vs one of the toughest cover safeties in the game. Defense did just enough in both of the games to help the offense. Some are saying that the win over Saints was more because of a shocking play from New Orleans, but I wouldn't go that far. It was not their best effort, but I'll give Raiders the credit that they deserve, for the way they defeated the Saints, completely imposing their will on them.

Not good enough

Not many people expected New England to be the team with the worse record before this game, but here we are. After winning their opener vs Miami, they lost on a difficult road game at Seattle. Allowing 34 points is definitely not something Bill Bellichick was happy about, but it's becoming a tradition for his teams to have some shaky performances in the beginning but then they improve over the course of the season. That was especially expected this season with a new QB under the center, after 20 long and successful seasons.

When mentioning some of the injuries on the Raiders OL, Patriots do have some problems of their own there. David Andrews, their starting center and one of the better lineman has broken his thumb and was placed on the IR. James White is also out because of some personal reasons, but usually, Patriots have a bunch of guys in the backfield which they can plug in at any time. White is a great receiving back that will be difficult to replace, so it is going to be interesting what New England is going to do on obvious passing downs. I wouldn't be surprised with more Cam Newton runs, especially in 3rd & short situations.

Patriots vs Raiders betting tips

Might look like a donk play, but I like the Raiders getting +6.5 in this spot. I love that there was some fire in Derek Carr this season that made him more aggressive with his throws, because that was exactly what they needed. He was too careful at times last year and opting for checkdowns too often, rather than trying to fit a ball into a tight window, which was a shame. He has all the arm talent to complete those types of throws, which he showed on numerous occasions, including MNF game vs New Orleans.

One of the problems last week was that he was very in love with his tight end, whom he targeted 16 times. One of Belichick's defensive philosophies is taking away opposing best player, either by bracketing him or assigning Stephon Gilmore to shadow him. Something like that will most definitely happen to Darren Waller, especially with Henry Ruggs out for this game and no real threat to turn the attention away from Waller in the passing game. Also, Waller was dealing with a knee issue the entire week, but is expected to suit up.

Also, don't forget to check out our new feature for comparing outright odds. These two opponents are both part of the AFC conference. Odds for winning it can be found with this link: https://theplayer.com/odds/american-football/usa/nfl/nfl-afc-conference-winner