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Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
Handicappers are obviously much smarter than I am but I don't think Cinci deserves to be -5.5. Cinci is way overrated and won a weak division with a pretty easy schedule. The Raiders aren't necessarily a good team as they have lost to some pretty awful teams this year but I'd put this matchup at pretty much even.
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I'm not saying that the Raiders are a shoe in to win but ignore who they lost to and pay attention to whom they beat. Raiders went 8-4 in the conference which is tied for best in the AFC and had the highest strength of victory of all AFC teams in the playoffs after the Chiefs as the Raiders beat 8 teams with winning records this season. Not taking a shot at Rube but for example the Eagles didn't beat a single team with a winning record on route to making the playoffs. The Chiefs clearly present a problem for the Raiders as Bradley's cover 3 defense just doesn't work against Reid's offense but they have been competitive or beat most of the good teams on their schedule this year. The letdown losses to the Bears, Giants, and Redskins were during the turmoil periods of Gruden's emails getting leaked and Ruggs killing a girl. I don't think they are an elite team but they have enough pieces on offense and defense to present a problem for a lot of teams.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
Bengals already beat the Raiders pretty handily this season, and with home always being worth 3 points I don't think -5.5 is that outrageous. Besides it's likely the two scenarios in this game are a close, one score game (likely won by the Raiders) or a multi score game (likely won by the Bengals). -5.5 actually seems pretty spot on.
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It was a 3 point game in the 4th quarter and then a couple of Raiders turnovers changed the complexity of game. They kept Burrows to his lowest output of the season under 150 yards.