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Both of these teams have been decimated by injuries, but I still like this game to go over here. Neither team has played well on the defensive side of the ball, and I believe each side has a potential difference maker -- Brock Bowers for the Raiders and Kyren Williams for the Rams.
Anyone wanna play wide receiver? The likely absence of WR Cooper Krupp, who again joins WR Puka Nacua on the sidelines, means the Rams' offense will continue to hunt for points. The Raiders, finally rid of the traded WR Davante Adams and with WR Jacob Meyers questionable, is in the same flailing boat. Las Vegas does not have the ground game, which ranks 31st, to bail out the team. Both sides are averaging a fraction above 18 ppg. Bonus: The Raiders have fingers crossed that DE Maxx Crosby returns to bedevil QB Matt Stafford.
The Raiders' defense is in the top 5 in the NFL in rushing yards per attempt allowed to opposing running backs. The Raiders are giving up 5.0 rushing yards/attempt to opposing backs this season and this is a great matchup for Kyren Williams coming off a bye week.
Last 6.5 on our board. The Rams are out of their bye week so if Sean McVay is as good of a coach as he thinks he is ... while the Raiders look completely dysfunctional now. Davante Adams is gone and others may follow. And reportedly new minority owner Tom Brady wants to bring in Bill Belichick next season. I feel like Raiders majority owner Mark Davis is just asking for all this nonsense with that Three Stooges Moe-style haircut. And that's offensive to Moe. No. 2 Raiders WR Jakobi Myers is expected out again. Sounds as if Cooper Kupp will return for LA.
Rookie Brock Bowers has been everything the Raiders could have hoped for -- naturally, I traded out of the No. 4 spot in my Fantasy dynasty draft or could have taken him there -- but has just the one TD so far. Bowers has been targeted a whopping 22 times the past two weeks, and that's not changing anytime soon with Davante Adams traded. The concern with taking a Raiders player for a TD is that the Silver & Black don't score that much, but the Rams have been terrible defensively in allowing 27.8 PPG. The last primary tight end they saw was Green Bay's Tucker Kraft, and he had two TD catches.
Brock Bowers was posting elite TE1 numbers even playing alongside Davante Adams. Now with Adams being traded to the Jets, Bowers is set to be heavily featured and gets a fantastic matchup against a subpar Rams pass defense that has been very generous to opposing Tight Ends. Bowers target share, air yard share, targets per route, yards per route run, all rank in the 95th percentile at the position. Bowers is the real deal.
The Raiders have been blown out two straight times, losing by 16 to the Broncos and by 19 to the Steelers. Vegas ranks last in EPA per rush and QB Aidan O'Connell is averaging 5.6 yards per attempt. The Rams are 1-4, but can use the bye to reset their season. There is optimism Cooper Kupp could return Sunday. The Rams have lost one-score games to the Packers, Lions and Bears. They're much better than the lowly Raiders. Look for LA to win by a touchdown or more.