Oakland Raiders vs. Seattle Seahawks Preview and Pick

Old AFC West rivals renew pleasantries when the Oakland Raiders visit the Seattle Seahawks on ESPN’s Monday Night Football tonight.

This will be the 50th meeting all-time between these two former divisional foes; Oakland leads the all-time series 27-22.

Seattle sits atop the NFC West, a half-game ahead of the second-place St. Louis Rams. Coincidentally, the Seahawks host St. Louis this Sunday.

The Raiders lie in last place in the AFC West, 3 ½ games back of the co-division-leading Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers.

Oakland started this season by losing its first five games. The Raiders have won their last two, but the first came against a sorry Arizona Cardinals team 22-9, and the second came last week against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-13, in a game Oakland got outgained 360-98. Fortunately for Raiders fans and financial backers, Oakland returned two INTs for TDs vs. Pittsburgh, held the Steelers to 89 yards rushing and put up a nice goal-line stand in the last minutes to preserve the victory.

Seattle started the season 3-0, but since losing RB Shaun Alexander to a foot injury the Seahawks have gone 1-3 straight up and 0-4 against the spread.

On the season, the Raiders are 3-4 vs. the number, while Seattle is 2-5. And Oakland is 0-3 straight up and 1-2 ATS on the road this season, scoring a total of 29 points in those three games.

How pathetic is the Oakland offense? It ranks dead last in the league at 234 yards per game and has failed to score a touchdown in four of seven games this season. And the Raiders have been outrushed in five of seven games this season, and are getting outgained on the ground by a 126-111 yards-per-game average.

The Oakland defense, however, ranks 8th overall and has allowed just 35 points over the course of the last three games (vs. Denver, Arizona and Pittsburgh).

The Seahawks offense ranks 23rd overall this season, and also has been outrushed in five of seven games. Seattle is getting outgrounded by a 106-92 YPG average.

The Seahawks defense also ranks 23rd in the league.

Raiders’ starting QB Andrew Walter, playing in place of the injured Aaron Brooks, has not shown much. In five starts this season, Walter is hitting for a 47% completion rate, a 3/9 TD/INT ration and a 49.0 passing rating. Walter completed just five passes last week vs. Pittsburgh, and every fifth passing play with Walter in the game has resulted in either a sack or an INT.

The Seattle defense, however, allowed Kansas City QB Damon Huard to throw for 312 yards in a 35-28 Seahawks defeat last week.

Seattle QB Seneca Wallace, playing in relief of the injured Matt Hasselbeck, has made one start this season and played in two other games. Wallace has completed 53% of his passes and owns a three-to-four TD/INT ratio and a 59.0 QB rating. Wallace was allright last week vs. the Chiefs, going 15/30/198 with three TDs and two INTs. Wallace is also mobile; he only got sacked once last week and had 18 yards rushing.

For what it’s worth, Seattle beat Oakland in the final exhibition game of the season back in August 30-7, outrushing the Raiders 152-39 and holding Oakland to 104 total yards. These two teams haven’t played a game that mattered since the Raiders beat the Seahawks 31-17 back in 2002.

The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank Seattle 18th at 19.2, the Raiders 31st at 12.2.

These two teams have played one common opponent so far this season. Oakland, as mentioned above, beat Arizona 22-9 two weeks ago, while the Seahawks beat the Cardinals 21-10 in Seattle in Week 2.

The O/U is 2-4-1 in Raiders games this season, 5-2 in Seahawks games.

Seattle opened up as favorites of 7 ½ and more at some sportsbooks, with a total of 39 ½. But while the line has stayed fairly constant, the total has dropped to as low as 37. This must be attributed in great part to the weather forecast, which calls for a very good chance of heavy rain and strong winds in Seattle Monday night.