Two struggling teams face off Sunday. It also happens to be two teams who are quite familiar with one another. Which means you can pretty much throw out any notions about which team is favored and focus on the individual matchups. It may also end up being about which team can get out of their own way.
Jimmy Garoppolo vs Bill Belichick
Belichick is very familiar with Garoppolo. One could argue that there is no defensive head coach in the league who is more familiar with Garoppolo than Belichick. So, you’d figure if anyone would have Jimmy G’s number, it’s him. Belichick’s Patriots were notoriously caught spying on opponents a few years back. Well, between what he knows about Garoppolo and the guy calling the plays for him, no video taping is required. He has all the cheat codes on Jimmy G in this offense.
Mac Jones vs Marcus Peters
Jones has been picked off four times over the past two weeks. So too has the Raiders defense. And four of Jones’s interceptions this season were by cornerbacks. So, the Raiders have been opportunistic and Jones has been generous of late. And Peters just seems due to get his hands on one.
Vederian Lowe vs Maxx Crosby
Lowe is the man tasked with keeping Crosby from destroying whatever the Patriots game plan will be. Not an enviable task to be certain. Crosby was pivotal in dismantling the Packers’ offensive gameplan on Monday Night. If Lowe can’t keep him at bay, Crosby will do it again.
Raiders vs Josh McDaniels play calls
Several times this year, the Raiders either fell victim to McDaniels’s lack of aggression or the defense saved him from himself. He has a tendency to kick the field goal when the seemingly obvious best option is to go for the first down. And even as bad as the Patriots are, if he fails to find his backbone against his longtime head coach, it could once again hurt the Raiders’ chances of pulling out the win.
Bad vs worse
Neither of these teams is very good. The Patriots have been colossally bad the past couple weeks on both sides of the ball, being outscored 72-3. Meanwhile, the Raiders are one of just five teams since 2010 to fail to score 20 points in a game over their first five games. It was only by facing two utterly inept offense that they were able to still get a couple wins out of it. Which is certainly how I would describe the Patriots.
That being said, nothing should be taken for granted. It took three takeaways, including on a deep ball in the end zone to put away the Packers last week and it took a missed field and and missed extra point by the Broncos to escape with a one-point win in Denver in Week one. So, you figure this one will come down to turnovers and/or a fluke play much like happened last week when Jakobi Meyers fumbled it for the Patriots and Chandler Jones recovered it and scored.
Raiders look bad. Patriots look worse. But that can flip quickly based on unforeseen events.
