James Alberino

 

Raiders -3 (even) at Giants — 1.5 unit

 

The Giants have 1 win this season where they played a complete game – two weeks ago vs the Panthers with Carolina’s offensive line banged up and Sam Darnold playing terrible. Their other win they stole the game at New Orleans and were down 11 with 7 minutes left and it was a terrible spot for the Saints. The Raiders definitely had a distraction this week with Henry Ruggs but the Giants have their own issues – they had to skip practice Thursday because there were 13 positive Covid tests that ended up being false positives. The Giants had to leave the facility and hold virtual meetings Thursday and this was after playing Monday night in Kansas City and getting back late, so their prep this week was cut short and interrupted. So betting the Raiders comes with a little situational risk but they’re also coming off a bye and were able to get ahead on prep vs the Giants whereas the Giants had a short prep week get even worse. No Saquon Barkley or Sterling Shepard. Kenny Golladay likely on a pitch count, Lorenzo Carter out on defense. I was more comfortable betting this because the Raiders won at Denver by 10 the week after Gruden was fired and followed that up with an 11 point win vs the Eagles. There are veterans in that locker room both players and staff so I’m taking the risk because matchup wise the Raiders are better than the Giants. Zay Jones should fill in for Ruggs enough where Carr can move the ball to Waller, Renfrow, and Bryan Edwards. Carr can also target the Giants linebackers in the pass game with his RBs. Daniel Jones is now 10-24 as a starter in the NFL and has thrown for only 5 touchdowns his last 6 games and 5 interceptions and Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue can affect this game vs the Giants Oline. The Raiders took care of business on the east coast in Pittsburgh 26-17 this season and topped 30 points this season 4 times and 4 of their 5 wins were by more than 3. Betting on the better team in this one.