TNF: Los Angles Chargers at the Oakland Raiders

Week 10 gets underway with this all California affair between the 4-4 Oakland Raiders and 4-5 LA Chargers.

In this AFC West divisional match-up, both teams come in after wins over decent NFC sides and with both teams have records that put them in the playoff hunt, victory at the Oakland Colosseum could be key to either side really pushing on in the hunt for the post-season.

The Oakland Raiders have been a fun all be it inconsistent team to watch this season, after a rocky pre-season broadcasted on Hard Knocks, the Raiders have slowly but surely found there feat under the character that is Coach Jon Gruden. QB Derek Carr is having one of his most consistent years in his career with the addition of weapons such as Hunter Renfrow and Tyrell Williams clearly helping him. Not to mention the Raiders have possible rookie of the year RB Josh Jacobs running their backfield and being their real shining light thus far. Look for Oakland to try and play through Jacobs a lot if they can’t get their passing game going early on.

As for the Chargers, not much has really gone well. LA started the season with a holdout from star Running Back Melvin Gordon and preceded to struggle throughout their first eight games only win one game by more than a single score. In last week’s fixture against the Green Bay Packers we did see glimses of last season’s Chargers, with Gordon scoring and Gordon’s former backup Austin Ekeler continuing to look like this sides best offensive player. Luckily for LA, they welcome back several stars on defence, with Melvin Ingram and Derwin James now being healthy, adding these two a Joey Bosa, who appears to be feeling himself this year, could be lethal against the Raiders.

This game feel’s like a lot of Thursday Night Football games, has the potential to be a high scoring touchdown show or a defensive slog out for 60 minutes. In this one I’m gonna take the Chargers in a 24-20 win away, with a healthy defence for LA they can cause real damage to the quite weak offensive line of Oakland and with Gordon scoring last week, I can see him and Ekeler getting the job done on offence. The Raiders game really depends on if Jacobs gets going in this one or not.

Link to the NFL’s own preview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ps3zEgyDyw

Kick off is 8:20pm ET and 1:20am GMT.