Take #269 Patriots over Raiders
(NFL) New England vs. Las Vegas,
Point Spread: 3.00 | -120.00 New England (Away)
Result: Loss
Familiar faces with similar problems look to lead their respective teams to victory Sunday when the New England Patriots visit the Las Vegas Raiders. Let's start with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who has seen his struggling team average an NFL-worst 11.0 points per game this season. New England (1-4) has been outscored a staggering 72-3 over its last two games and gone 34 consecutive drives without scoring an offensive touchdown. Belichick, however, confirmed Wednesday that Mac Jones will remain the team's starter despite pulling the quarterback in consecutive contests. Jones is just 24-for-43 for 260 yards and four interceptions in that stretch. While the Patriots have the NFL's 26th-ranked total offense (287.4 yards per game) and 26th-ranked rushing offense (83.8), don't expect Raiders coach Josh McDaniels to take his opponent lightly. After all, he knows Belichick quite well after joining New England in 2001 as a personnel assistant before shuffling over to defensive assistant, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. "I have great respect for their team and their coaching staff and obviously for Bill," said McDaniels, who is 2-0 in his coaching career against Belichick. There's a ton of huge trends pointing towards teams like New England who are off back to back ugly losses and being shutout. The Patriots actually played well early in their first three games as they beat New York Jets on the road and went toe to toe with Miami and Philadelphia to start the year. The wheels have come off the past two weeks for New England but they did run into two buzzsaw opponents as they faced Dallas who came in off arguably the most embarrassing loss in the league by a decent team this season (to Arizona) than faced a New Orleans team last week also off an ugly defeat the prior week. Now they get what's likely a fat and happy Las Vegas squad who's on a short week and needed lots of help to barely beat Green Bay last game at home. This is the ultimate buy low spot on the Patriots.