Derek Carr bounces back big and other bold predictions for the Raiders game

The Oakland Raiders will look to bounce back from an embarrassing loss at home to the Chiefs in week six with a win on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars in week seven. Road wins are never easy but this is also a team that the Raiders really should beat if they want to reach those playoff hopes everyone has talked about.

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As usual, it’s Thursday so we will be giving some predictions about what will go down if the Raiders notch that win, but first we gotta look at how I did last week:

1 – Run for over 130 yards

Nope. The Raiders run game once again struggled in the absence of Latavius Murray. That despite the fact that entering Sunday’s game, the Chiefs were allowing an average of 130 yards per game on the ground. The Raiders, however, only managed to rack up 65 yards on the ground. Part of that was due to abandoning the run game after falling behind and part of it was just the offense struggling a bit this week.

2 – Perry Riley leads the team in tackles again

Nope again. In fact, Riley was actually taken out of the game in favor of Malcolm Smith at one point. He did, however, return to the game after Cory James left due to an injury. Either way, Riley didn’t have anywhere near as impactful of a game as he did in his first go round with the Raiders. I still believe he performed better than Smith and am hopeful he will get more opportunities to start.

3 – Raiders win and advance to 5-1

HA!!! Not even close, but we really don’t need to dwell on this one. I thought it was a good match up for the Raiders but as it turns out, they were out played, out coached and out anything else you can think of. It was all Chiefs all day on Sunday.

And after going 0 for 3 on Sunday, I am now 6 and 12 on the year with my bold predictions. Let’s see if I can improve on that record this weekend.

THIS WEEK’S PREDICTIONS

1 – Derek Carr bounces back with two touchdowns and no picks

Derek Carr only had one interception through the first four weeks of the season before throwing picks in both of the last two games. And what’s worse is that in both of those games, Carr was lucky not to have thrown two interceptions as defenders dropped easy picks.

But worry not, this isn’t the start of a slide, it’s the end of one. Carr is going to get back to his winning ways on Sunday in Jacksonville, leading the Raiders with a very solid performance. He may not put up a ton of yards but he will find the end zone twice and perhaps more importantly, he will protect the ball.

2 – Khalil Mack has at least three impact plays

SO, what am I defining as impact plays? Pretty simple really, anything that results in a loss of yards. Basically, a combination of tackles for a loss and sacks (because no, I don’t count a holding call as an impact play by Mack).

The Jaguars have given up 14 sacks this season which is tied for ninth most in the league. Their offensive line is one of the biggest problems with Jacksonville and that offers Mack an opportunity to eat. And as well all know, it’s about time that Mack started to have a bigger impact on the team this season.

3 – Raiders win the turnover battle with at least two

Much of the success that the Raiders experienced early on in the season was thanks to winning the turnover battle. Sure, the defense may have sucked all year but at least it was forcing turnovers that helped keep the Silver and Black in the game. Against the Chiefs, the Raiders lost the turnover battle and failed to create any turnovers.

Luckily for the Raiders, they will be playing the Jaguars and their quarterback, Mr. Turnover himself, Blake Bortles. In his three year career, Bortles has thrown 42 interceptions and fumbled eight times. In that same time span, Derek Carr has thrown 28 interceptions and had nine fumbles. Now, if the Raiders can just capitalize on his failure to protect the ball, it will be a huge step towards getting the win.

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