As I outlined yesterday, we have had an incredibly busy couple of days at clubgowi with 15 previews and 17 suggested plays over Saturday and Sunday, I have just sent an email with the last of those and you can read one of five NFL previews, a very brief one (slightly edited) below ......

 

 

NFL: San Diego Chargers @ Oakland Raiders

 

The Chargers are Poor with a capital P and are 6-18 since December 2014 and none of those six wins have come against a team with a winning record.

On top of that, they have turned into the divisional whipping boys, losing nine straight games in the AFC West, the Raiders won two of those last season and will certainly not be feeling any sympathy for a rival who beat them 13 straight times between 03 and 09 and that has, and will probably never, be forgotten. The two are tied at 6-6 since that sequence ended, but the Raiders have been the 5th worst team in the NFL over those six years and if they could hold their own against San Diego, what chance the Chargers now that Oakland finally has a team !

Raiders are off to their best start since 2002, which was the last time they posted a winning record, they went to the Super Bowl that year and have not come close to even the post season since ! However, they were 7-9 last year and seven of their losses came against teams with a .625 (10-6) percentage or better record , they lost a handful of close ones and actually beat the eventual Super Bowl champion Broncos in Denver and in December. All the signs were there that this was going to be the year and fingers crossed, it is, we have family in California and they are a mix of 49ers and Raiders (but they all support Brentford !) and the Oakland side will not hear of anything but a playoff season. BTW, I saw a  preseason game between the Niners and Raiders at Candlestick Park and there must have been 20-30 separate fights break our around the stadium and I understand Chargers/Raiders can get similarly "heated". They have won three on the road, lost in their only start at the Coliseum, but now have back to back home divisional games in Oakland and are expected to be 5-1 in eight days time. Oakland traded this year for veterans players who would hit the ground running , like Denver did in 2014 and they are hoping for a similarly happy ending.
 

Good Luck.