San Diego Chargers (9-7 last season, 3rd place in AFC West) –3, o/u 43 at Oakland Raiders (4-12, last place in AFC West), 9:15 p.m. Eastern Monday, ESPN
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
A couple of new quarterbacks will go up against each other when the San Diego Chargers visit the Oakland Raiders in a season-opening AFC West battle Monday night.
Phillip Rivers will make his first career NFL start for San Diego Monday night. The Chargers are putting a lot of faith in the third-year QB after letting Drew Brees go to New Orleans via free-agency during the off-season.
On the other side of the field, Aaron Brooks will make his first start for Oakland after coming over from the Saints during the off-season. But Raider Nation must be wondering whether Brooks for Kerry Collins is an upgrade. Brooks compiled an unimpressive 13/17 TD/INT ratio last season for New Orleans.
San Diego went 9-7 last season but missed out on the playoffs. The offense ranked 10th in the NFL, the rushing game averaged 130 yards per game to rank 9th, the defense ranked 13th overall and 1st against the run at 84 yards allowed per game.
Oakland lost its last six games in a row last season, costing head coach Norv Turner his job. New (old) head coach Art Shell, who went 54-41 as head Raider from 1989 to ’94, inherits an offense that ranked 21st last season and a running game that ranked 29th (just 86 yards per game). The Raiders defense ranked 27th, and allowed 128 rushing yards per game (25th).
The Chargers have won five straight games in the series with Oakland, and have covered the spread the last six. Last season, San Diego beat the Raiders twice, 27-14 and 34-10. Both games stayed under their posted totals, mainly because they were so high (50 and 51).
The Great LaDainian Tomlinson has averaged 149 yards rushing in his last six games vs. Oakland. Tomlinson is listed at several sources as questionable for Monday’s game with a sore neck, but there is no mention of him missing the contest. He’ll most likely play.
San Diego is a solid 10-6 straight up and 12-2-2 against the spread the last two seasons on the road. And the Chargers are 4-1 ATS as road favorites over those last two seasons.
On the other hand, the Raiders are a sorry 5-11 SU and 4-12 ATS at The Black Hole over the last two seasons, and a perfect 0-9 SU and ATS as home underdogs.
For what it’s worth, Oakland went 4-1 SU this exhibition season.
San Diego opened up as 2 ½-point road favorites for Monday’s game, with a total of 44. The Chargers have been bet up to three-point chalk, and the total has been bet down to 43.
The Ultimatecapper Pick: We absolutely hate laying points on a Monday nite football game but we really feel that the Chargers defense is going to pressure Aaron Brooks into making some poor decisions which should give them a good edge on the victory.
