Oakland Raiders vs Arizona Cardinals

The Oakland Raiders find themselves looking up at 31 other NFL teams, sitting in the bottom of the league with a 1-8 record. They’ll get their best chance to climb up out of the cellar in Week 11, as they travel to the University of Phoenix Stadium to face the 2-7 Arizona Cardinals. Playing at home is enough to make Arizona a 4-point favorite in this game, with the total set at 41 points.

Raiders vs Cardinals Game Center

MY PICK FOR SUNDAY: CARDINALS -4

While Arizona’s record is only slightly better, with one more win on the season than Oakland, the Cardinals are playing much more competitive football.

Aside from a Week 7 drubbing by the Broncos, Arizona entered Week 10 with five of its past six games decided by 10 points or less. The Cardinals fell by 12 points to the Kansas City Chiefs last week but were within one score in the fourth quarter of that game before the 9-1 Chiefs pulled away.

Oakland, on the other hand, has looked every part of a team that has its eyes set on 2019, having lost its last five games by 16, 24, 14, 31 and 14 points. The Raiders have failed to score a touchdown in three of their past four contests and look exactly like what you’d expect from the NFL’s worst record.

Arizona did as good a job as any team in the league in slowing the league’s top offense, holding the Chiefs to a season-low 26 points – in Kansas City. The Cardinals still have some talent on the roster and are fighting each week, while the Raiders have stripped their roster nearly bare, from trades, waiving players and injuries. 

With one team near the bottom, but still playing hard, and the other team at rock bottom and trending to go subterranean, I’m looking toward the home team to put on a better performance. Neither has anything to play for, except pride, but it appears as if the Raiders lost theirs long ago, so my money is on Arizona to cover.

IS DAVID JOHNSON FINALLY BACK?

Don’t look now, but the Cardinals may finally have their top offensive weapon showing signs of life.

Running back David Johnson, who was an MVP candidate two seasons ago before missing all of last season due to injury, had an incredibly forgettable first half of 2018. With Johnson topping 59 rushing yards just once (and in that game he tallied just 71 yards on the ground), and not producing much in the passing game either, fans were unsure if he was rusty, ineffective or just not being utilized enough.  

Week 10, however, showed us a glimpse of what the old Johnson could do. In trying to keep Arizona in the game against the powerhouse Chiefs, Johnson had 21 carries (second-most this season) for 98 yards, while adding seven catches for 85 yards (both season highs), and two total touchdowns.

Leading the Cardinals in both rushing and receiving yards, it was just the third time Johnson topped 100 yards from scrimmage this year and his 28 touches were a season high.

Johnson’s lack of touches each game was a major part of Arizona’s offensive struggles this year, but if the team is going to start giving him the ball more, the dynamic player we all remember may start coming back — especially against Oakland’s last-place rushing defense.

EXPECT YARDS APLENTY

For as dismal as the Raiders’ point scoring has been recently, their ability to generate yards has still remained present.

In its Week 10 loss to a superior Chargers squad, Oakland still managed 317 total yards, 16 first downs and more than 31 minutes of possession.

The problem, though, is the Raiders allowed 335 yards on defense … and that was their best showing this season. Only the second time in the past six games that the team didn’t yield at least 400 yards, Oakland currently allows the sixth-most yards per game on defense.

As its opponent, Arizona, is just outside the bottom 10 for yards allowed, we should expect to see the ball get moved up and down the field. If one (or both) of these clubs can actually convert in the red zone, we might even see some points on the board, and the OVER get challenged.