After their first loss to the Buffalo Bills since 2003 last Sunday, the New England Patriots will be looking to respond with a win when they go on the road once again this weekend. They head west for a tough test against the Oakland Riders, a team who have impressed so far this season on both sides of the ball.
New England are 5/11 in the match odds with Unibet while an Oakland win is offered at 7/4. In the handicap market, the Patriots are -4.5 point favourites at 9/10 over the Raiders.
They might not have thought it at the start of the season, but this week 4 encounter has turned into a big game for the New England Patriots. They started their 2011 campaign at an electric pace, blowing out both the Miami Dolphins and the San Diego Chargers, with Tom Brady throwing for over 900 yards. The Pats then continued their 30 points per game streak against the Bills last week but failed to win in a 34-31 shootout.
Now, Coach Bill Bilichick will not be panicking just yet, but he will have realised that there is something severely wrong with his defence. Questions have been raised over the last few off-seasons about how the Patriots would approach bolstering their defence but they always seem to stick with what they had. It was exactly the same this summer and now it seems they are seeing the full effects.
The Patriots have absolutely no pass rush to trouble opposing quarterbacks and their secondary is also looking very weak. This all means that teams are having no problem throwing the ball against them and can put up significant points on the board. With New England’s offense and Brady at the helm, the Patriots will always post big scores but as they saw last weekend, they might not always win in a shoot-out.
Oakland are another team who have been productive on offence throughout the first three games of the season. They also lost to Buffalo in a 38-35 shoot-out but they got back on track last week with an impressive 34-24 victory over the New York Jets.
Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell is currently ranked ninth best in the league but it is their balanced offence which has really made the team competitive so far. The Raiders are rushing the ball just as good as anybody in the NFL right now and running back Darren McFadden has a league-best 393 rushing yards over three games. The Patriots are ranked 21st in the league when stopping the run so they could be in for a long day on Sunday. With McFadden’s speed and skill, he should continue to post big numbers for the season against a weak Pats defence and then open up the passing game for Campbell.
The Raiders have also been good on the defensive side of the ball and shouldn’t let Brady torch them like he has to teams so far. Oakland’s defensive line is very strong and they should be able to dominate and make Brady uncomfortable in the pocket.
It is always hard to bet against the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, but this Sunday it looks if there could be another upset on the cards for the team for a second week in a row.
1.45 Oakland Raiders
2.75 New England Patriots
Tip #1: Back Oakland Raiders (+4.5) at 9/10 with Unibet
Posted: Friday, 30th September 2011
Author: Russell Lloyd
Tags: nfl, new england patriots, oakland raiders, unibet,
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