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Sports Interaction betting analyst Frank Doyle looks at the prospects for the Oakland Raiders in a significant year in their history and their odds to win the 2010 Super Bowl and he gives his pick on how the Raiders will perform for bettors during Week 1.
What happened to the Oakland Raiders? One of the iconic franchises in the NFL for the past half-century, it's like they've fallen off the face of the earth since Tampa Bay stomped them into the dirt at Super Bowl XXXVII.
Rich Gannon was the quarterback that lead the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2003, as well as winning the AP's NFL MVP award. The Raiders have had eight starting quarterbacks since Gannon, which is more than one a year, and could have nine by Thanksgiving if Jeff Garcia usurps incumbent JaMarcus Russell.
Sports Interaction's prices on the Raiders' chances of success this year are an indication of just how far the Raiders have fallen. +10000 odds to win a fourth Super Bowl in 2010, +5000 to win the AFC, a humiliating +1100 to win the AFC West. If that's not the bottom of the barrel, it's pretty close.
The bad news for the Raider Nation is that those prices are about right. Russell has a pass completion percentage in the low fifties. Garcia is 39 years old. The Raiders had some success with the running game last year but they were dead last in passing and teams ran up scores on the Raider D. That's not the form you like to see if you're betting on a team to still be playing in January.
In the light of all this, there are still bets to be made on Raider games. It's just a question of knowing where to look.
Firstly, Sports Interaction has set the total wins for the Raiders this year at six. The under is -139, but it still looks a good bet even at that low price. The Raiders' schedule is a monster, because the AFC West is matched with the NFC East this year and the only time you'd give the Raiders a chance there is when Washington visits Oakland on December 13th, with maybe home advantage to swing it for the Raiders. But otherwise? It'll be another long season in Oakland.
But while it will be a long season, it may start well. Oakland's first game is the second part of a Monday Night double-header for Week 1 that celebrates the old AFL. So Buffalo will get stampeded by New England in the first game and then it's San Diego at Oakland.
Sports Interaction has made San Diego a seven point road favorite and with everything going on, the celebrations, the fact the team plays for Coach Cable, the fact that the Chargers mightn't be all that - all those things make me think that, for the first sixty minutes at least, the Raiders can commit to excellence one more time. Raiders +7 at home to San Diego is the pick.
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Frank Doyle, Gambling911.com
