Raiderdamus is going to have a hell of a time following up last week's perfect prediction. At least I think he is and for our team's sake, let's hope he is.
That's right, it is not looking good, my friends. My advice: Hedge your happiness with money and take the Texans -5, for Raiderdamus does not forsee joy in Oaktown.
Raiderdamus has emerged from his cave of black magic visions, battered, breathless, hungry and still tripping to tell us what he has seen.
There is a thick fog rolling into the Bay Area that is blocking my vision... it is hard to see this week. There is so much uncertainty.
Both the Raiders and Texans are coming off losses last week. The Cowboys really demolished the Texans, which bodes well for the Raiders, but the Raiders do not have the defense nor the quarterback play that the Cowboys do so how much it will actually benefit us remains to be seen. The Texans will have the usual things to exploit- special teams, run defense and Raider mistakes. Not a whole lot new to be learned from the Cardinal game that couldn't have been seen from last season or the first two weeks of this one.
The difference is, Matt Schaub is REALLY good. Even with Nnamdi covering Andre Johnson, Schaub will carve up the Raider D. Johnson will, like Fitz did last week, catch one and only one TD. Kevin Walter may catch another. The tight end corps will catch a lot of short routes over the middle and may break a couple for big gains.
I see Arian Foster scoring a TD, but I don't see him breaking any big runs nor so I see him gaining more than 80 yards.
The Raiders will have a pretty good day offensively, with McFadden gaining over 100 and scoring a TD. He will also catch three passes. Louis Murphy will catch five, and also score a TD. Miller will catch two, one of which is another TD. The special teams will make a costly turnover late in the game. Janikowski will be flawless, however.
The Raiders will play very well against an upper echelon team, bu will be unable to overcome costly penalties and at least one heartbreaking turnover that will ruin our momentum. Texans win, 41-27.
Damus Jr has yet to share his visions. I can only assume that he is so overwrought by the burden of his gift that he has gone completely mental. If he recovers, I shall post his score. As always his position is tenuous and the closest prediction shall unseat him.
Special Alert: Lil' Dam has emerged from the depths of the future and psychosis to bring us his pick. It appears our seers are once again at odds, for Jr brings us good news.
My pick is Oakland in a hard fought game. The red zone issues for Oakland are not completely fixed however I have seen this team is improved overall. If this was last year Oakland would have kept it close and Houston would eventually pull away and play keep away using the run game to finish them off. However this is the 2010, not 2009. Oakland still gets around eight penalties but that’s better than ten or eleven a game. Also Houston is getting a lot of criticism for their lack of a pass rush and passing yards allowed overall but the name of the game is turnovers. Gradkowski is the starting quarterback this year and he seemed to hold himself accountable for much of the loss. See that’s the difference this year. He will bounce back. He may throw one pick but that’s it. The game will not come down to the Texans poor pass defense but it will come down to their light defensive front. Oakland will use a balanced attack to keep Houston honest. McFadden may not break for over 100 yards rushing but will in total offense. Also Oakland’s defense will finally start confusing Schaub leading to many overthrows as he is susceptible to do and cause him to hold onto the ball too long. I predict a close game with last week’s goat coming back and finishing off the upset in overtime. Oakland bounces back for a huge upset 23-20.