The Oakland Raiders will play the Tennessee Titans on the road in Nashville in Week 1. Here are five reasons it will be the Raiders that come out on top.
Week 1 of the 2017 NFL season is under way. Last night saw the rival Kansas City Chiefs win up in Foxborough over the New England Patriots 42-27 on Thursday Night Football. Since when do the Patriots lose games at home when they lead at halftime? We’re also only two days away from the Oakland Raiders’ first game of the season.
Oakland will play a tough opponent on the road in the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Kickoff from Nissan Stadium in Nashville will be at 10:00 a.m. ET on September 10. CBS will have the telecast with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo in the booth to call the game.
This game between the Raiders and the Titans should be one that goes down to the wire. These are two evenly matched teams that have their eyes set on making the AFC playoffs. A win for either team will be a huge feather in their cap to start the season.
Oakland arrived last year going 12-4 and making the AFC playoffs as the No. 5 seed. Tennessee went 9-7 and failed to reach the playoffs due to a tiebreaker in the AFC South. We’re going to have a good one on our hands in Nashville on Sunday. Here are five reasons it will be Silver and Black that comes out on top with a thrilling Week 1 victory.
End of last season will serve as motivation
Nobody in Raider Nation liked how last season ended. Once Derek Carr fractured his fibula in Week 16 at home versus the Indianapolis Colts, that was it for Oakland’s 2016 Super Bowl dreams. The offense sputtered with Matt McGloin and Connor Cook under center. Carr’s injury brought an unhappy ending to a fairy tale season.
Flash forward 8.5 months later and the Raiders are still looking for another win. It has not been since Christmas Eve 2016 that the Raiders have gotten the W. Oakland feel to division rival Denver in Week 17, the Houston Texans in the AFC wild card round and dropped all four preseason games in 2017.
In short, it’s been a long time since the Silver and Black could celebrate in victory. You know that the guys are hungry for the win and will do everything in their power to steal one on the banks of the Cumberland River on Sunday afternoon over in Nashville.
Sure, Tennessee’s season didn’t end great either with Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota breaking his leg on the same day as Carr. However, Tennessee was not a team that had close to the Super Bowl aspirations as the 2016 Raiders did. Few teams in football will be as motivated to win in Week 1 given how last season ended than the Raiders.