Texans are 7-point favorites over visiting Raiders

Last week Vegas oddsmakers put the Raiders at their best line since the opener. They were 4.5-point underdogs to the Green Bay Packers. The Raiders would lose by 18 points. It appears the oddsmakers learned from that because heading to Houston this week, the Raiders are back to at least a touchdown out.

They are 7-point underdogs to the Texans in Houston almost across the board among the various oddsmaking sites.

You have to figure with the way Aaron Rodgers moved through the Raiders like butter that there isn’t much confidence in them to stop a top ten NFL quarterback like Deshaun Watson.

Rodgers had a perfect 158.3 passer rating against the Raiders including throwing five touchdowns. That’s exactly what Watson did to the Falcons three weeks ago.

As for the Texans defense, it’s great against the run, but not against the pass. Their defense gives up slightly less yards per game (275.6) and touchdowns (15) than the Raiders (289.8, 16). Rankings them 29th in the league and the Raiders 31st. So, they’ll have the opportunity to buck the odds, so long as they can stop Watson a few more times than they did Rodgers.