Derek Carr continued his fine play this season, completing 21 of his 35 passes for 249 yards, a touchdown and one interception to beat the Titans, 17-10, on Sunday. But that game was ultimately won on the defensive side, as the Raiders D came up huge by forcing three turnovers and getting a sack.
It was surprising to see Oakland, a team that gave up the most yards through the first two weeks of the new season, to find some success defensively. Now the question is: can they do that again for the rest of the year, or at least in this weekend’s showdown with the undefeated (3-0) Ravens? We don’t know.
Well, one thing we do know is that the Raiders are in serious trouble if they don’t provide their quarterback enough protection. Carr is going to face a Baltimore defense that currently ranks second in the NFL in total yards allowed, and one that issued four sacks and three interceptions on Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles yesterday.
Given that, the Raiders are in a situation where they might be forced to execute more plays on the ground. Hence, you can expect a heftier workload for their top running back Latavius Murray, who’s been able to find the end zone in each of the first three weeks.
Oakland is 6-4 SU and 8-2 ATS in its last 10 road games overall.
Baltimore is certainly getting its money’s worth on placekicker Justin Tucker, who agreed to a four-year, $16.8 million contract extension with them in the offseason.
13 of the Ravens’ 19 total points during their heart-pumping win over the Jaguars on Sunday all came from Tucker. That includes his fourth-quarter field goal—a 54-yarder—with less than two minutes left to play. It allowed Baltimore to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2009 and third time in franchise history.
Quarterback Joe Flacco, however, struggled throughout the most part of the game against Jacksonville. He finished with just 214 passing yards, and had back-to-back picks in the final period. Still, you have to give him major credit for engineering the Raven’s game-winning scoring drive.
A return trip home for this coming Sunday’s matchup with the Raiders will be an interesting test for the Ravens, who are 3-2 SU (2-2-1 ATS) in their last five games at M&T Bank Stadium.
Flacco should be in line for a much better performance, considering that the Oakland D is surrendering the most passing yards (340.0) in the league right now. He’ll have a number of trustworthy targets to throw to, particularly in the pair of TE Dennis Pitta and WR Mike Wallace.
On the season, Pitta and Wallace have combined for 273 yards on 19 receptions and three touchdowns—all of which were caught by the latter.
Writer’s Prediction
Oakland gets the huge road win, slipping past the Ravens by only single-digits.
