The Oakland Raiders took a tough one on the chin last week in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but all signs are pointing to redemption in the team's upcoming home game against the Minnesota Vikings. Here's 3 Reasons Why The Raiders Will Bounce Back BIG Against The Vikings.
3. Ailing Vikings
Here's a list of impact players for Minnesota who're extremely banged up heading into Sunday's contest: QB Teddy Bridgewater, currently listed as questionable for Sunday's game; linebacker Anthony Barr (questionable, hand); linebacker Eric Kendricks (questionable, ribs); defensive tackle Linval Joseph (questionable, foot) and defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd (questionable, knee).
Potentially losing Bridgewater is bad enough, but if the Vikings have to go without even one of the four aforementioned defenders, a potent Raiders offense will have that much more room to work with. If multiple guys are out, we'd even be willing to guarantee another banner day for Derek Carr and the offense.
2. Cooper and Murray
Both WR Amari Cooper and RB Latavius Murray were listed as questionable before Friday, but were upgraded to probable after returning for full practices on Friday. If both are ready to go at even 90%, Oakland's offense will have a fine time exploiting a vulnerable Minnesota defense.
The more weapons for a streaking Derek Carr, the better. Give this guy a couple of junior varsity receivers and a tackling dummy right now and he'd still get 200 yards out of them.
1. Opportunity
The Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets on Thursday, muddling the AFC Wild Card race by dropping the Jets to 5-4 while improving to 5-4 themselves. Beat Minnesota and Oakland will join the duo on the playoff bubble. There's even a chance they'll move back ahead of Pittsburgh, who they lost to last week, if they somehow stumble against Cleveland on Sunday.
In short, the door of opportunity is wide open for this talented bunch to make a push towards a playoff berth. Taking down Minnesota at home will be the first step towards fully seizing the moment.
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