5 reasons the Oakland Raiders will beat the New York Giants
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders are overwhelming favorites versus the New York Giants on Sunday. Here are five reasons the Raiders will improve to 6-6 and get the win.
After beating the Denver Broncos last week 21-14, the Oakland Raiders have a great shot to make it two wins in a row when they host the struggling New York Giants. New York is 2-9 on the season and has its eyes set on the 2018 NFL Draft. Oakland is 5-6 and still fighting to get in the AFC playoffs.
The Raiders are big favorites in this game for a handful of reasons. It is at home in Oakland, the Raiders are three wins better than the Giants and New York benched long-time starting quarterback Eli Manning in favor of veteran backup quarterback Geno Smith.
For those reasons and more, this is the easiest game left on the 2017 regular season schedule for the Raiders. If they lose this game, that would be beyond unacceptable. There would be almost no chance Oakland could put it together in the final quarter of the season to even think about making the AFC Playoffs. In short, this is a gotta have it for the Silver and Black.
All that aside, the Raiders will need to play a complete ball game to come away with a victory in this one. New York may be in a rough spot, but this is the NFL, where anybody can beat anybody on any given Sunday. That being said, here are five reasons it will be the Raiders who are victorious in Week 13 over the Giants.
Playing in front of the home crowd always helps.
Oakland has not played many games of late in front of the home crowd. While the Raiders played at The Coliseum last week, that was the first time Oakland had hosted a true home game since Week 7’s one-point win over the arch rival Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football.
Since the Raiders played technically a home game at Estadio Azteca down in Mexico City, there will only be seven true home games this season for the Raiders. So far, they are 3-2 at The Coliseum this year. The Raiders have wins over the New York Jets, the Chiefs and the Broncos. Their two home losses came consecutively to the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Chargers in Weeks 5 and 6.
Sunday will be one of the last two home games for the Raiders this regular season. The last one comes in a few weeks when the Dallas Cowboys come to town sans Ezekiel Elliott. Simply put, the Raiders have to win their last two home games to make the playoffs. However, this home crowd has been a huge boost to the Raiders so far this year, per usual.
New York hasn’t played in 10 days since they were the late game on Thanksgiving. The Giants have to travel across the country with a depleted roster and start a backup quarterback against a playoff-hungry Raiders team feeding off the energy of a raucous home crowd. You have to like the sound of that.