Oakland @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 19, 2010 ) St. Louis 14, Oakland 16

The Oakland Raiders will have had 10 days to celebrate their first win in over a year by the time they visit the St. Louis Rams on Sunday. The Raiders found a way around the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 20 to snap a 10-game slide to start the season and are battling with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the worst record in the NFL. The Rams are one of the more dangerous sub-.500 teams, but have not been able to find any consistency.

St. Louis has knocked off the likes of Seattle, San Francisco and Denver but missed out on a chance to earn back-to-back victories for the first time this season when Shaun Hill was intercepted on San Diego’s 4-yard line with 1:03 left in a 27-24 loss at Chargers last week. “Our team played really, really well and played very hard,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher told reporters. “Played well enough for us to win this game and we didn’t. So we go on.” Oakland put up 24 points on the Chiefs to match their highest total in the last six games.

TV: 1 p.m. ET, FOX. LINE: Rams -7. O/U: 42

ABOUT THE RAIDERS (1-10): Oakland had gone 368 days between wins and before rookie quarterback Derek Carr led the game-winning drive against the Chiefs. “It’s a toll on those kids in that room seeing them every single week show up into that team meeting or into that locker room and not smile,” Raiders coach Tony Sparano told reporters of the constant losing. “You walk in there (after a win), it’s a total different feeling. You can never forget that feeling.” Carr has given his team a chance to win by avoiding big mistakes and does not have an interception in either of the last two games.

ABOUT THE RAMS (4-7): St. Louis is trying to avoid big mistakes at the quarterback position after handing the job back to Hill, who took over for an ineffective Austin Davis. Hill was picked off twice in the loss to the Chargers to overshadow great games by wide receivers Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin, who combined for a pair of touchdowns (Austin’s rushing). “We’re settling in right now to a really good group (of receivers),” Fisher told reporters. “When we go with three with Kenny (Britt) and (Bailey) and Tavon, we’ve got a good group out there.”

EXTRA POINTS

1. Raiders RB Latavius Murray, who had two touchdown runs last week, is questionable due to a concussion.

2. St. Louis cut WR Damian Williams and promoted TE Justice Cunningham from the practice squad.

3. Oakland S Charles Woodson was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week after recording his 20th career sack to become the first player in NFL history with at least 20 sacks and 50 INTs.

PREDICTION: Rams 27, Raiders 20