Raiders vs. Ravens Prediction: Can Las Vegas Cover the Spread?

The Las Vegas Raiders make the trip to MT&T Bank Stadium on Sunday for an AFC matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. Both teams are in atonement-mode from week one, where they both took losses and didn’t cover the spread. For Baltimore, it was longtime tormentor Kansas City who put a 27-20 win on them in Arrowhead. They get their home opener this week against a Raiders team that fell flat in week one with a 22-10 loss to their division rival Chargers last Sunday. Back on the road again to start the season, the Raiders look to pull off the upset to avoid an 0-2 hole. What’s going to be the move this Sunday in this game?

Early Red Flags for the Raiders

Last Sunday may have been a sneak peek of what we can expect from the Raiders this season. It’s also just a one-game window that may lead us astray. Their offensive line got a rough matchup last week against the Chargers, but they didn’t look that good and couldn’t really spring much of a run-game. The concern is that without Davante Adams out there making big plays, they’re pretty flat. Gardner Minshew is an adequate quarterback but one who can make mistakes, as well. RB Zamir White can do some things but is hardly a difference-maker most weeks. It can be sort of a big mish-mosh of players, none of whom are really stepping up to become stars.

Adams will step up at some point while perhaps showing he’s not really the same dependable force he was a few years ago. Rookie TE Brock Bowers can make a difference, and Jakobi Meyers is a suitable number-two receiver. But unless Minshew can extract some bigger performances from some of these guys, it’s really a grind. To score one first-quarter TD against the Chargers and then manage a mere FG for the rest of the game was a bad look.

Silver (and Black) Lining for the Raiders?

A sort of more-hidden aspect of this Raiders’ team could be a defense that is actually an improved group this season. We got a little preview on Sunday, albeit in a losing context. They have a lot of juice across all levels of this defense and held the Chargers to just 11 first downs in week one, even if they were at times gashed by Chargers’ running back JK Dobbins. It’s just with all the issues the Raiders were having on offense, their defense was still able to supply a lot of resistance—something those betting against them need to account for this season.

Upside for the Ravens Offense This Week

While a home-Baltimore defense figures to have a say in this game in a big way, I’d look for Lamar Jackson to be a big factor. After running for 122 yards against a good Chiefs defense while getting new Raven Derrick Henry involved with a TD, this run game could be hell on teams like the Raiders this season. They have that double tight end punch with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, a good young receiver in Zay Flowers, and it was good to see Rashod Bateman make a big play, as the talented receiver had been slumping in this offense. Jackson has really accumulated a lot of weaponry in this offense—both on the ground and through the air.

But this will really be a spot where the Ravens’ defense can start to show its teeth. It’s quite a drop-off in quality when you go from back-to-back champ Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead to facing Gardner Minshew at home. And not that they were horrible last week, at least doing a good job in keeping the Chiefs’ ground game in check, but in this context, I’d expect the front to make more of an impact on the Raiders’ offensive line. And if those mistake-prone tendencies surface again for Minshew this week, this is one of the last defensive units you want to see. The potential is at least there for the Baltimore defense to play a major role in this game.

X-Factors for the Raiders this Week

When watching these games and trying to predict along which lines the game will unfold, we notice certain factors coming to the surface, sometimes out of left field and sometimes not. For the Raiders, the potential exists for Davante Adams to go off. We’ve seen Minshew spring forward with huge passing games before. What if he starts connecting with Adams in a big way? What if we start to see the prized tight end from the draft in Brock Bowers start to serve notice? Those making a habit of picking against the Raiders this season have to brace for that. There just might be a handful of weeks where Minshew dials it in with what is a good cast of pass-catchers. After coming up short against the Chargers, it seems like now is a strange time for that to happen on the road against a better Ravens’ defense, but it’s still early, and no real patterns have been established by week two of a new season.

Take the Points

While being well-aware that a contending team like the Ravens will be gunning hard here to avoid an 0-2 start, something tells me the Raiders are better than what we saw last week. It’s not like they’re not going to be out there also trying to avoid a 0-2 start. While their prospects for a big rushing day don’t seem that viable this weekend, I think Minshew can get enough out of a good aerial game to keep the Raiders in the hunt. Meanwhile, I’d look for the Raiders’ defense to prevent Jackson and the Ravens from running up and down the field all afternoon. A positive stance on the Ravens can certainly be justified in this battle, with that double-digit spread just not really ringing of good value at all. I’ll take the Raiders and the points in this one.

Loot’s Prediction to Cover the Point Spread:

I’m betting on the Las Vegas Raiders plus 10 points.