Philip Rivers has a long history of being predictably unpredictable. True he has not turned out that mega-dud yet, but now that he is a leading MVP candidate and plays what is perceived to be one of the worst teams in the NFL, this is the perfect spot where he has let down so many times. As a scheduling anomaly, this is just their second home game as they had the neutral game in London, two true road games and a bye.

Speaking of byes, what do will say and win with all the time? Byes benefit teams that need time off to regroup. The same is true about long rests in the NBA but we will talk about that more later this month.

Winless teams (at least four losses) off a bye 25-8 against the spread and 38-14 if winning percentage .150 or less off bye. See, struggling teams benefit the most from a bye week. San Diego 1-1 straight up on road with 12-point win to EJ Manuel and Buffalo. That is no big whip.

Tony Sparano takes over as new coach for Oakland. Firing coaches in midseason usually have very positive short-term effect, even if it does not work long-term. It fires up the team. They can rally around a new beginning, etc.

Combo of Rivers long history of predictably unpredictable and the proven fact that struggling teams benefit the most from byes, plus this only being the third home game for Oakland all has possible upset and very likely cover written all over it.