Antonio Pierce is great in this spot - a big dog. He's 11-5-1 ATS as Raiders coach and 3-0 this season ATS as a dog of 7+ and 5-1 ATS career as a dog of 7+ and I was waiting to see if this would be offered at 8 and it was. Bengals are a bad team, Joe Burrow has lost 5 straight at home, Bengals have gone 3 straight without netting 305 yards and they are 27th on D on 3rd down and 27th in RZ. Bad locker room with guys pulling the chute, bad injury problems. Starting LT is out and I bet Maxx Crosby eats. If we get good Gardner Minshew (rare, I know), the Raiders will win outright. Won at BAL

While the Raiders have lost four straight, they've covered the last two. Gardner Minshew is coming off a clean game vs. Kansas City, completing 80 percent of his passes and throwing for two touchdowns without an interception. Tee Higgins and Orlando Brown are doubtful, and their expected absences limit the Bengals' offense. Look for a narrow Cincy win

The Raiders last exceeded 20 points six games ago, a drought owing in large part to offensive line headaches. The cast changes almost weekly. Another issue is turnovers -- 17 this season, most in the league. Cincy flexes offensive muscle but enters this game somewhat crippled. WR Tee Higgins, OT Orlando Brown Jr. and RB Zach Moss are doubtful. Brown's absence could be cataclysmic. He would square off against Maxi Crosby, a demon pass rusher. Taking the points is tempting in light of the Bengals' 1-3 straight-up home record, its only win by four points over Cleveland. The Under seems a safer option.

Have a bit of a soft spot for Cincy's Chase Brown as he was my final pick in my 2023 Fantasy Rookie Dynasty draft in Round 3, and he seems to be clearly the No. 1 guy now. The Bengals signed Zack Moss this offseason, which was not ideal, but he's doubtful Sunday. My only worry here is Joe Burrow getting pass-happy.

After a fairly slow start to Ja'Marr Chase's season, the All-Pro is back on track and gets a tasty matchup in Week 9. Chase will face a Raiders pass defense that is last in PFF's coverage rankings, in addition to double teaming opposing WRs at a low rate. This is notable because the Bengals are likely to be without Tee Higgins who has yet to practice this week and appears doubtful. Chase should handle double digit targets in a game the Bengals desperately need to win in order to stay in the playoff mix.

This total is set right at what Bowers is averaging, which on the surface is hardly surprising. But with Davante Adams a distant memory and Raiders QBs loving to feed Bowers and him the best option in the passing game, I expect the target share to tick up even more. And Bengals allowing a 117.2 pass rating to TEs (29th) this season and also 29th over the last 2 season, for over 8 yards/attempt and 80% completions. Their tackling has been downright brutal at times this season - albeit better lately - and at this point Raiders have nothing to lose so expect their best players to get ample opportunities to make plays. The first-round pick is their present and future on offense.

The Bengals have been horrible vs TEs for two years now and Bowers is getting fed at a historic rate for a rookie TE no matter who pretends to play QB for the Raiders. The fact he has 1 TD on 67 targets is nuts. But fear not, the Bengals allow 80% completions to TEs over the last 2 seasons with 10 TDs at 8.1/attempt. He can torch them outside the redzone and their coverage options are limited. He's a size speed problem and no reason not to feed him airballs to highpoint in the redzone. Bengals have the 27th RZ D, where TEs eat.

This could be a bit of a trap spot for the Bengals with the Ravens on Thursday up next, but the loss to Philly dropping them to 3-5 should have them focused on this game. Their offense is fifth in third-down and red-zone success rates, and Joe Burrow shouldn't have trouble scoring against a Raiders team that's 27th in points allowed per game. On the other side, the Bengals defense has shut down limited offenses this year but struggled when facing teams like the Eagles and Ravens, and I believe the Raiders fit into the former category. This is a big number but unless my ratings on these teams are way off, it should be a few points higher.