Denver vs Las Vegas: The Raiders are demoralised and not ready to play football

The Las Vegas Raiders are without a head coach. Jon Gruden has left his post for non-football reasons. What will happen to the team now? Gruden’s assistant Rich Bisaccia is preparing Vegas for the Week 6 game against Denver. Will the Raiders be able to succeed against the odds? We’ll pick a few options to bet on at once.

The Broncos are off to an impenetrable start to the season. At the end of five weeks, the team is second in efficiency ratings and allows only 15.2 points per game on average. Only the Buffalo Bills allow less to their opponents.

Denver’s offensive play, of course, is nowhere near as good as its defensive play. Vic Fangio’s team is only 24th in the league, scoring 20.4 points. Hence the two consecutive losses - 7:23 at home to Baltimore and 19:27 away to Pittsburgh.

If you look at the player stats, though, it seems like the Broncos’ offense should be scoring more. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is very good, playing very accurately - though only seven touchdowns, only one interception, and almost 70% of his passes. There are a couple of excellent runners in the line-up. The playmaker has enough passing targets as well. The only problem that is likely to be preventing the attack from performing better is the linemen. Bridgewater already has 11 sacks, a catastrophic number in 5 games.

After three perfect wins to start the season, including one over strong Baltimore, the Raiders suffered two straight losses to the Chargers and Chicago Bears. They scored only 23 points in two games. Has Derek Carr forgotten how to throw the ball and the receivers how to catch it? Highly doubtful. It’s almost certainly a consequence of the psychological hole the team has fallen into with the Jon Gruden situation. It’s all about racist and homophobic remarks made by the ex-coach once upon a time. But that’s not the point. The fact that a coach who has just signed a multi-year contract and is in his 4th season of permanent progress in the game has become a big authority when the players suddenly find themselves on the verge of being sacked could not help but shock the players.

It’s hard to say whether the Raiders will come to their senses before the end of the championship. It is quite possible that already in the game against the Broncos, the team’s collapse from within will be even more noticeable.

The Raiders are demoralised and unlikely to be ready to play high-level football at the moment. Last week, Vegas scored only nine points against the Chicago Bears. Now another top defence is on the line. It looks like the Raiders have no chance against the Broncos.

• Handicap 1 (-3.5) for 1.73;
• Individual Total 2 Under 20.5 for 1.80;
• Total Under 44.5 for 1.84.