Oakland @ New England preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 2, 2011 ) New England 31, Oakland 19

The New England Patriots cruised to an easy win last week to avoid a 0-2 start but still don’t appear very happy about the offense. Tom Brady and company will try to find a better rhythm when they host the Oakland Raiders in their home opener on Sunday. The Raiders are still looking for their first win and were limited to 14 points in each of the first two games while breaking in rookie quarterback Derek Carr.

Oakland might not be the perfect matchup for the Patriots' passing game, as the Raiders rank second in the NFL with an average of 164 yards allowed through the air. Brady was an efficient 15-of-22 at Minnesota last week but was limited to 149 yards and struggled in the second half to move the ball for the second consecutive week. “I think offensively we could certainly stand to get a lot more balance into our attack overall, period,” New England coach Bill Belichick told reporters. “We didn’t have it in the run-pass ratio in (the opener at Miami) and we didn’t really have enough of it in the passing game last week.”

TV: 1 p.m. ET, CBS. LINE: Patriots -14. O/U: 46.5

ABOUT THE RAIDERS (0-2): Oakland, which is 1-12 in its last 13 road games, already is making its second trip to the Eastern time zone after beginning the campaign with a 19-14 loss at the New York Jets. The Raiders are having some trouble running the ball and stopping their opponents from doing so, averaging just 63 yards on offense while surrendering 200 on defense. Carr leads the team with 57 rushing yards and threw for 263 against Houston last week but was intercepted twice in the 30-14 loss. “As long as we continue to work unselfishly, for each other, we’re going to start going down the right path,” Carr told reporters when summarizing his postgame comments to teammates. “You can watch me work; you can put it on my shoulders.”

ABOUT THE PATRIOTS (1-1): Even as New England was putting the finishing touches on a 30-7 win last week at the Vikings, Brady appeared unhappy. “I don’t think our passing game has been stellar to this point, so it’s hard to sustain much over the course of the game and get (everybody) the ball when we’re not doing as good a job as we’re capable of,” Brady told reporters. “…We’ve got a long way to go.” Where the Patriots did show big improvement in Week 2 was in pass defense, grabbing four interceptions as newcomer Darrelle Revis made his biggest impact thus far and safety Devin McCourty showed off his athleticism in the middle of the field.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Belichick (200) needs one win to move into fifth place on the all-time list.

2. Oakland RB Maurice Jones-Drew sat out last week with a right hand injury, but returned to practice on Thursday.

3. New England WR Julian Edelman needs 54 yards to reach 2,000 for his career.

PREDICTION: Patriots 35, Raiders 24