Raiders: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 12 against New York Jets

Another week, another chance for the Oakland Raiders to stockpile wins against bad teams in their quest to steal the division. How will they fare against the New York Jets?

The Oakland Raiders have been a pretty good team this year when it comes to handling teams they should (on paper) handle.

When we look at their four losses this year, we see defeats at the hands of the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, and Kansas City Chiefs — all of whom would be playoff teams if the season ended today.

So, it’s safe to say the Raiders have had four quality losses this year if there is such a thing.

Now they go up against another team they should beat in the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in my very own home state. In case you guys don’t know out there in California, New York sports teams right now are a bit of a laughing stock outside of the New York Yankees.

The Brooklyn Nets will be better once Kevin Durant returns next season and we’ll see about the New York Mets with Carlos Beltran as the new manager. But for now, there isn’t much winning going on in this part of the country (I may or may not enjoy that……….wink wink nudge nudge).

But getting back to this week’s football game, here’s an interesting piece of history. The Raiders haven’t won in East Rutherford since 1996. The Jets have also won six out of the last 10 matchups against the Raiders.

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And this year’s Jets team just so happens to be on a two-game winning streak at the moment, so they’re going into this game with a lot of momentum and Sam Darnold playing with a ton of confidence.

But here’s the problem. Who have the Jets beaten in these past two games? The New York Giants and Washington Redskins, two teams vying for the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft with a current combined record of 3-17. These Raiders they’re facing here are a much different story.

Derek Carr is playing out of his mind this year with a 72 percent completion rate. Josh Jacobs is averaging nearly five yards per carry. They have one of the best offensive lines in football that has allowed Carr to drop just 15 times this year (tied for second-best in the league).

And in case you haven’t picked up on it, the Raiders have a pretty impressive pass rush now with Maxx Crosby emerging following his four-sack performance a week ago.

Maybe last year’s Raiders (or every year’s Raiders outside of 2016 in recent history) would fall into this trap and lose to another down team like the Jets.

But with how well this year’s Raiders are playing, and how bad the Jets’ offensive line is playing, I think the Raiders are going to take care of business in this game.

The Raiders ‘-3’ in this game looks very appetizing and doable for them to cover. Maybe if the spread was a little bigger, I would consider the Jets plus whatever it would be.

But I like the Raiders winning this game by a score of 31-16. Watch for the offensive explosion out of them. Watch for Crosby and the pass rush to have another huge afternoon.