Offenses Shine in Las Vegas

Cardinals vs. Raiders, 4:25 ET

The desert battle between the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders takes place this weekend. We have two very different starts to the season with these two squads. The Cardinals looked completely overmatched in a game against the Chiefs. The Raiders battled the Chargers and ultimately closed by just five points.

Starting with the Cardinals, maybe we just need to take a look at the Call of Duty schedule for double experience points. Apparently those weekends, Kyler Murray is something crazy on those bad weekends like 4-8, and performs significantly worse. He is an avid gamer, but that's not the only issue the Cardinals have. They were so far behind they could never establish a ground game and Murray is most effective when he is able to move around and use his legs. He still led the team in rushing yardage, but he only was able to throw for 193 yards and two touchdowns. In fairness, the Chiefs defense looks way better than I thought it would. Still, the Raiders might have a better defense than the Chiefs do. This might be a challenge as Murray tries to establish a connection with the receivers on his team. Despite a meaningless touchdown to Marquise Brown, they couldn't get the ball downfield like they needed to.

The Raiders didn't come together until the second half of the game against the Chargers. In the first half they were, well, just kind of off. In four first-half possessions, they had a three-and-out, an interception ending drive, and another short drive in addition to their first drive which resulted in a field goal. In something that shouldn't surprise anyone, they peppered Devante Adams with targets - 17 of them, almost half of all passes went his direction. I'd expect that most of the season. Josh Jacobs wasn't involved quite enough in this game for my liking though. Part of that was playing behind so much. I wouldn't be surprised to see them get Darren Waller more involved in this game too.

I think this game sees a lot of points. I wouldn't be shocked to see Murray put together a better performance. Derek Carr also probably will be able to put together a more complete outing in this. I lean towards the Raiders winning this game, but I'm going to take the over for the game at 51.5 -105. Both offenses are capable and we could see a track meet in this one.

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