Raiders -3.5 (-105) to win 30 units
I am really high on the Bears, as I have a big future on them to win the NFC Championship from earlier. However, with the injury of Jay Cutler I think they are in a really bad spot this week. A lot of people are using the angle of a team stepping up with its QB injured after the Eagles beat the Giants last week. I think that angle is being abused this week as the public is on the Bears which makes no sense to me.
"You've got to win at home," Palmer said. "You've got to protect your field. We've got to do a better job of keeping the crowd in it. We've fallen behind or not gotten off to fast starts.
"I think it's a huge key for us to start quickly, put some points on the board and let our defense have a chance to rest on the sideline early in that first quarter and throughout the first half."
"We need to protect our house," Jackson said. "We haven't done that very well. If we do at home what we've done on the road we'd be sitting pretty good right now. Our fans have done a great job of coming out and supporting this team, and this team's got to play better at home."
"You want to win at home," free safety Michael Huff said. "Especially, if we win the division, we'd get a home game in the playoffs, so we definitely need to learn how to win at home, with the best fans in the world. We want to win for them, and hopefully that's this week."
The Raiders are 0-2 at home with Carson Palmer this season. They also lost to a rookie QB known as Tim Tebow a couple weeks ago so they know that they must be focused for a Bears team without Jay Cutler. The Raiders desperately want to get a win at home. The Raiders are going up against a stingy Bears D. However, Oakland has a very good running game and Palmer has looked solid the past couple of weeks. Carson should have time to throw as the Bears were awful in getting pressure last week against a Chargers team with a bunch of offensive line injuries. The Raiders didn’t let Jared Allen get a sack last week on the road so I think they’ll do well against Peppers at home. I think the Raiders, who are one of the most physical teams, can impose their will on the Bears who will be fatigued coming into this game after having played 3 emotional games against the Eagles, Lions, and Chargers. The Bears D really needs to step up with Hanie out but I don’t think they’ll have the energy to do it here against a Raiders team that wants to make a statement and get a stronghold on the division lead.
On the other side of the ball the Bears are going to play very conservatively with Caleb Hanie taking over for Jay Cutler. Unfortunately, Matt Forte didn’t do much against a pathetic Chargers run D at home. I think the Raiders are going to flood the box and make Hanie beat their 5th ranked pass D. The Raiders have an elite pass rush as well and with Hanie likely facing many 3rd and longs I think the Bears line that has improved a lot the past couple of weeks is in for a rough one here against an opportunistic Raiders D.
The Bears are missing their long snapper who is a great leader and Hester is banged up. These special teams injuries may be key in a conservative game like this. I think it’s going to take the Bears more than one week to get going again and that injury of Cutler is going to deflate them a bit after they were absolutely rolling after a bad 2-3 start.
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