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Las Vegas Raiders vs Denver Broncos: An AFC West matchup

The Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos will face each other at Empower Field at Mile Highon Sunday.

The Raiders are good in conference play

The Las Vegas Raiders are third in the AFC West with a 2-2 record. They had a tough start losing 22-10 to the Los Angeles Chargers but were the top story in Week 2, stunning the Baltimore Ravens 26-23 on the road. The following week, they were major favorites against the Carolina Panthers but lost 36-22 at home. Last week, the Raiders recovered and won 20-16 against the Cleveland Browns. Alexander Mattison rushed for 60 yards for the Raiders, who totaled 152 on the ground and five different players had run for at least 10 yards, the highest number since 2010 against Seattle.

The Broncos need to step up

The Denver Broncos are at the bottom of the AFC West division with a 2-2 record. They had a rough start of the season losing the first two games against the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos pulled themselves together in Week 3 beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-7 on the road. Last week, they won 10-9 in New York against the Jets. Bo Nix, the 12th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, finally threw his first pro touchdown pass in his fourth start for the Broncos. Nix was 7 of 15 for minus-7 yards in the first two quarters and finished with just 60 yards on 12-of-25 passing.

Betting Trends

The Broncos are 5-15 SU in their last 20 games against teams from the AFC West and 5-11 SU in their last 16 games in October. Denver has played under the total point line in 11 of their last 16 games overall and 5 of their last 7 home games. The Raiders are 8-0 SU in their last 8 games against Denver and 5-2 SU in their last 7 games against teams from the AFC West. Las Vegas has played over the total point line in 4 of their last 6 games overall and under in 5 of their last 6 in October.

Prediction and Conclusion

Things are already heated up in the AFC West Division with the Kansas City Chiefs having a perfect record, and the rest of the division splitting the first four games. The Denver Broncos are coming back home after winning the last two on the road and will host the Las Vegas Raiders, who have won the last 8 against the Broncos. The last time Denver won was back in 2019 when the score was 16-15. The Broncos made a brave move this season by giving the starting quarterback job to the rookie from Oregon, Bo Nix. He has a slow start of the season throwing for only 660 yards in four games. Raiders’ Gardner Minshew is not much better with 877 yards, and both of them have under 50 QBR. Given that struggles, the total run line is set at only 36,5 points and we go with the over.