The Raiders look to gain momentum off their win last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers as the the 3-5 Philadelphia Eagles come to town. The Eagles have struggled the last few weeks offensively without Michael Vick at quarterback, failing to gain 300 yards each week in total offense. Meanwhile, the Raiders have gotten stronger each week on the defensive side of the ball and find themselves in the top ten in total defense and ranked 6th against the run. They are also the only team in the NFL not to give up a run over 20 yards. It will be a matchup of a team looking to establish the run and one who has excelled in stopping it. Let's look at the matchups and predict a winner.
Raiders Offense vs. Eagles Defense
The Raiders offensively want to run the ball. I don't think that comes as a surprise as they are last in the league in passing yards and last week almost salted away a victory by running out the clock by the third quarter. The Eagles defensively have been one of the worst defenses against the pass, ranking 31st, and overall, also 31st. It will be interesting to see if the Raiders will look to air it out a little bit in this one against a team that has been very suspect in that area. I still think that the Raiders will want to try and get McFadden going and rely on the read-option more to keep the Eagles off their toes and back on their heels. The Eagles have not yet faced a QB like Pryor yet this year.
Advantage: Raiders
Raiders Defense vs. Eagles Offense
The Eagles will start Nick Foles at QB this week even though he was concussed last week against Dallas. He played probably his worst game of his career last week completing only 10 of 29 passes. The Raiders will try and key on the running game and look to stop NFL's leading rusher in LeSean McCoy. McCoy has struggled the last two weeks only gaining 103 yards on 33 carries for an average of 3.1 yards/carry. The Raiders will try and dare Foles to beat them through the air and load up the box on McCoy.
Advantage: Raiders
Special Teams
The Raiders have made a change in the return game and have put Taiwan Jones and Jacoby Ford back as kick returners and Ford as punt returner replacing Phillip Adams. Coach Dennis Allen said that they are looking for a spark and believe that Ford will bring that. Even though he came off one of his worst games of his career - losing a fumble, having another fumble go out of bounds and almost allowing another punt to hit him in the leg and have the Steelers recover. The Eagles have not had much explosiveness in the return game yet this year and both kickers are middle of the road.
Advantage: Raiders
Prediction: Raiders 21, Eagles 17
Record to Date: 4-2
Raiders Offense vs. Eagles Defense
The Raiders offensively want to run the ball. I don't think that comes as a surprise as they are last in the league in passing yards and last week almost salted away a victory by running out the clock by the third quarter. The Eagles defensively have been one of the worst defenses against the pass, ranking 31st, and overall, also 31st. It will be interesting to see if the Raiders will look to air it out a little bit in this one against a team that has been very suspect in that area. I still think that the Raiders will want to try and get McFadden going and rely on the read-option more to keep the Eagles off their toes and back on their heels. The Eagles have not yet faced a QB like Pryor yet this year.
Advantage: Raiders
Raiders Defense vs. Eagles Offense
The Eagles will start Nick Foles at QB this week even though he was concussed last week against Dallas. He played probably his worst game of his career last week completing only 10 of 29 passes. The Raiders will try and key on the running game and look to stop NFL's leading rusher in LeSean McCoy. McCoy has struggled the last two weeks only gaining 103 yards on 33 carries for an average of 3.1 yards/carry. The Raiders will try and dare Foles to beat them through the air and load up the box on McCoy.
Advantage: Raiders
Special Teams
The Raiders have made a change in the return game and have put Taiwan Jones and Jacoby Ford back as kick returners and Ford as punt returner replacing Phillip Adams. Coach Dennis Allen said that they are looking for a spark and believe that Ford will bring that. Even though he came off one of his worst games of his career - losing a fumble, having another fumble go out of bounds and almost allowing another punt to hit him in the leg and have the Steelers recover. The Eagles have not had much explosiveness in the return game yet this year and both kickers are middle of the road.
Advantage: Raiders
Prediction: Raiders 21, Eagles 17
Record to Date: 4-2
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