Analysis:I feel bad for The Raiders, as many people do, so much that I think it has shown up in the line - possibly the oddsmakers protecting against what they know is going to be heavy Houston support for Oakland's obvious injury issues. Personally, I made the line Texans -2.5 and here we are getting 3.5 with +4 widely available.
I feel that Conor Cook is actually an upgrade over Matt McGloin and I feel that Brock Osweiller is a downgrade from Tom Savage. I think The Raiders are the better team. They nearly and should have won maybe the best division in football and Houston squeaked out a division title in the worst division in the league. The Houston defense is solid, no question, but their offense is weak and Oakland has a big advantage on Special Teams. I think the general public is overreacting to The Raider quarterback situation and I also believe they are remembering what they saw last week which was an inexcusable coaching and player effort in Denver. I feel that Del Rio will redeem himself with a much better preparation today and that the players will bounce back as well.
Maybe my favorite piece of this handicap is that of the pressure that will be on Brock Osweiller. The fans cheered loudly when this guy was benched for Tom Savage. Osweiller now enters this game under a microscope and with any wrong move; interception, fumble, bad pass.. he is going to get crushed by the home crowd - and I don't think he is good enough to handle that kind of burden.
I am grabbing the points but I do think The Raiders will win outright. In the Wild Card round, teams that win the game, cover the spread nearly 89% of the time. The largest such percentage over any other time during the season.
Pick Made: Jan 5 2017 8:53PM PST