5 reasons the Oakland Raiders will beat the New York Giants

Oakland’s strength defensively is obvious. The Raiders’ pass rush can be one of the best in football when it wants to be. With guys like Bruce Irvin and Khalil Mack leading the charge, few teams in football have a passing rushing tandem this dynamic. Some teams don’t even have one quality pass rusher and Oakland has at least two.

Complement Oakland’s pass-rushing prowess with the notion that the Giants have one of the worst offensive lines in football. Yes, they have some decent players on the offensive interior in Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg. However, its flailing turnstile after flailing turnstile at tackle for New York.

Do you really think that Ereck Flowers is going to stop Irvin from living in the Giants backfield? How about Chad Wheeler‘s chances of containing Mack all afternoon? Oakland had five sacks against Denver last week and it would not be shocking to see them hit that benchmark this week given the awful play the Giants usually get out of their offensive tackles.

Of course, quarterbacks that are better than Paxton Lynch have been able to throw the football on the Raiders secondary. Though he’s not great, Geno Smith is a better downfield thrower than Lynch, but maybe not by much. Regardless, it will be hard for him to move the sticks vertically when he is spending half the game on his back courtesy of the Oakland pass rush.