Raiders-Rams Week 14 Thursday Night Football: 5 things to watch

The Las Vegas Raiders are back at it Thursday night on a short week as they play at the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Kickoff is at 5:15 p.m. PT.

Here are five keys to the game:

Watch the turnovers:

The Raiders led the NFL with the fewest turnovers going into Week 12. But they coughed up two turnovers in the first quarter in the past two games. Remarkably, they came back to win both games, against the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Chargers. So, they were fortunate. Yet, that’s a dangerous way of living. In a game they are favored to win, the Raiders can’t let the Rams stick around because of turnovers.

Pass rush:

What do you know, the Raiders have a solid pass-rush these days. They had a season-high five sacks in a 27-20 win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday and have had 11 in the past three games after having 10 in the first nine games. Free-agent addition Chandler Jones had three sacks against the Chargers after having just a half sack all season. If they keep this up, it will go a long way to winning this game.

Be the better team:

The Rams are beat up. They are without their core, quarterback Matthew Stafford, defensive tackle Aaron Donald and wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Allen Robinson. The Raiders are the healthier, better team. They need to act like it. We’ve seen Las Vegas lose many winnable games this season. They simply must take care of business.

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Ride the stars:

Wide receiver Davante Adams and running back Josh Jacobs have both been on tears and are both playing at an elite level. They are both simply ridiculous and they are carrying the Raiders during this three-game win streak.

Here’s the plan: More of the same, please, fellas.

Feed off the crowd;

We al know the Raider Nation runs deep in Southern California. We know what SoFi Stadium looks like when the Raiders visit the Chargers. It’s going to be more of the same in this game and could even be more sense many Rams fans are turned off by this season that has blown up. So, the Raiders are going to have a lot of support in the stadium. They need to ride this energy and run away with this game.