Raiders Favored by 3 Points Over Dolphins
The week’s NFL Week 9 Sunday Night Football game features two teams that are in make or break situations, when the Oakland Raiders visit the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. The game is scheduled to begin at 8:30 PM. ET and will mark the return of Marshawn Lynch to the Oakland Raiders after his 1 week suspension.
After winning 12 games last season, the Raiders were expected to contend for the Super Bowl this season. Instead, they find themselves hoping just to make the playoffs. After a 2-0 start to the season, the Raiders have lost five of their last six games, and find themselves falling quickly to the bottom of the AFC.
Fortunately for the Raiders, the AFC playoff race is wide open, with 10 teams hovering between 4-3 and 3-5. While the Raiders still have a chance to make the playoffs, they can’t afford to lose more than one more game if they want to make a playoff push, which means they need to win this game.
Especially since they’re going up against a backup quarterback in Matt Moore.
The Dolphins are also on the outside of the playoffs, despite having the same record as the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are currently in 6th place in the playoff standings.
Miami also can’t afford a loss, but they still have more wiggle room than the Raiders, who already have five losses this year.
The Dolphins have been unable to put up points this season, and are averaging more points against them than they have scored.
Their defense will once again have to keep them in this one and hope the offense can put up enough points for them to hold the lead.
Matt Moore, who made his first start of the season on Thursday, showed the Dolphins fans that have been clamoring for him to start why he has been a backup his whole career. He will need to play much better and avoid the turnovers that killed Miami’s chances on Thursday.
The Raiders are favored to win by 3 points. The over/under on total points scored is 44.5. Taking the Raiders on the road this season has been a fool’s errand because their only road win of the year came in week 1 against the Tennessee Titans. Despite how bad Miami looked last week, I’m picking the Dolphins to cover in this one. Take Miami +3.