Thursday night NFL action sees the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers meet at the Levi Stadium for yet another Battle of the Bay. Both teams are coming off losses and will have had little time to recover having played on Sunday. There has been an ongoing debate about whether the NFL takes players health seriously and the debate has reared its head again with both teams having to play 2 games in 5 days. To manage the period for his team, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan gave his players Monday off to rest and defer practice till Tuesday morning.
This is the first NFL game in November and both teams will aim to start afresh with wins. The two teams have a combined 2 victories and lost their Sunday games. San Francisco 49ers (1-7) threw away a 12-point lead at the last minute to Arizona Cardinal who have only had two wins all season, to lose 18-15. The 49ers were leading 5-3 at the break and 15-3 in the fourth quarter but with 34 seconds left on the clock, conceded a 9-yard touchdown pass to relinquish victory to the Cardinals.
Defensively the 49ers are allowing 371.7 yards per game and 31.1 points while Fred Warner leads the team with 66 tackles. Marquise Goodwin and George Kittle have combined for 6TDs and 843 receiving yards while Kyle Juszczyk has totaled 19 interceptions to aid their offensive game. Matt Breida also has 2TDs and 487 yards while the Niners ground game is averaging 137.4 yards per contest.
The Raiders came out of a bye week to completely tank in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts to lose 42-28. Derek Carr scored his first NFL career rushing touchdown and in the absence of top receiver Amari Cooper who has been traded to Dallas, threw 244 yards and 3 scores. With key players getting traded, rumours are beginning to circle of the coach and quarterback losing the team. The Niners have gone 5-14 against the spread since the beginning of the 2016 season and are 2-5 ATS in their past seven games after a loss. They are currently 2-9-1 against the spread in the previous 12 games as an underdog and have also failed to win any straight up. However, they have covered nine of the last 13 after a double-digit home loss.
Team News
For the Raiders, Kelechi Osemele, Daryl Worley, T.J. Clemmings and Bruce Irving are questionable while Justin Ellis and Marshawn Lynch are injured. Lynch is suffering from a groin injury and is unlikely to return this season according to coach Jon Gruden. Irving twisted his shoulder in Sunday’s loss to the Colts.
The Niners have Joe Staley, Richard Sherman, C.J. Beathard, Matt Breida and Raheem Mostert questionable for this game but wide receiver Pierre Garcon and center Weston Richburg are out. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is still on clutches but will soon begin the pool stage of his rehabilitation after tearing the ACL in his left knee.
Verdict
Both teams are probably as poor as each other but if Derek Carr keeps up his 74% completion of his attempts for 654 yards, 4 TDs and only 1 interception in the past 3 games as QB, it should be enough to swing it in the Raiders favour.
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