Oakland Raiders at New York Giants Spread

The 1-3 Oakland Raiders head to Giants Stadium this Sunday to take on the 4-0 New York Giants in a Week 5 non-conference clash. Last week, Oakland’s offense continued to struggle as it was crushed 29-6 at Houston. The Giants dominated the Chiefs 27-16 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score looks. These teams have not met since 2005 when the Giants won 30-21 behind a big day from running back Tiki Barber. The Raiders have won four of the last five games in this matchup to take a 7-3 lead in the all-times series. NFL lines makers have listed the New York Giants as 16-point favorites with the total set at 39.

Getting out to a 5-0 start could prove significant for the Giants if history is any indicator. If New York is able to win this week, it would mark its first 5-0 start since 1990 and it just so happened to go on to win the Super Bowl that season.

Eli Manning has been such a huge part of New York’s success over the past few seasons. In fact, the Giants are 30-9 in Manning’s last 39 starts, including the postseason. Manning did sustain a foot injury in last week’s game against the Chiefs that forced him to leave the contest. The last report I have seen has listed him as probable, but I don’t expect the Giants to take any big chances, especially against the winless Raiders, if there is a strong possibility that playing this week could make the injury worse.

Regardless if Manning starts for New York this week, Giants stadium figures to be packed and pumped up. The Giants have not played at home in nearly a month and the fans are fired up about the 4-0 start. October has been a kind month to Giants backers and it is worth noting that the Giants are 17-4-1 against the number in their last 22 games in October.

The Raiders could have easily gotten out of the gate 2-0,  giving the Chargers all they wanted and more in Week 1 before defeating the Chiefs in Week 2. But the last two weeks have been awful as the Raiders have been outscored 52-9. Last week was especially bad because Oakland only managed 165 yards of offense against one of the worst defenses in football.

The bottom line is QB JaMarcus Russell must play better. Through the first four weeks of the season, Russell is the lowest-rated starting QB in the NFL. He is completing less than 40 percent of his passes and has not thrown a touchdown strike since Week 1. The Raiders have good enough players to run the football effectively. We saw it in Week 1 when they hit San Diego up for 148 yards on the ground. But teams have figured out that they are going to make Russell beat them through the air, and until he does, the offense is going to struggle.

Defensively, I like the direction the Raiders are headed in. They played pretty good last week, holding the Texans to just 328 yards and coming up with four QB sacks. This unit is going to have to be a big play unit, scoring points and leaving the offense with good field position. It is worth noting that the Giants are 0-3-1 against the number in their last four games as a home favorite of 10.5 or more points.