Week 1: San Diego Chargers at Oakland Raiders
What is it with this week’s Monday night games? The opener features a New England team that has beaten Buffalo 11 straight times, and the nightcap features a Charger team that has done the exact same thing to the Raiders.
And San Diego is a 10-point WagerWeb.com favorite to extend its winning streak in the series to a dozen. By the way, no team in NFL history has beaten another 12 straight times.
The current 11-game win streak is the Bolts’ longest ever against any single opponent. Despite the win streak, the Raiders still lead the all-time series, 55-42-2. This will be the seventh season opener played between the Chargers and Raiders, with Oakland winning five of the previous six. San Diego, however, is 3-0 all-time when opening in a prime-time game.
The Raiders have lost six in a row on Monday Night Football by a combined score of 173-41. That includes the 2006 opener against the Chargers (27-0) and the 2008 opener against the Broncos (41-14), both at home. Overall, the Raiders have lost 10 straight games on national television, including the past six by a 151-33 count. That includes a 34-7 loss at San Diego last season.
Some think that the Chargers are morphing from a run-dominant team that relies on LaDainian Tomlinson to a passing team behind Philip Rivers, who had the best season of his career in 2008, leading the league in passer rating and throwing a franchise-record 34 TD passes. Tomlinson rushed for a career-low 1,110 yards, which still ranked fourth in the AFC. His 12 touchdowns were the fewest since he had 10 in his rookie season.
Meanwhile, the Raiders are expecting to have defensive tackle Richard Seymour in the lineup. He finally reported to the team after saying he was “blindsided” by his trade from New England. He can only help a run defense that ranked last in the league in 2008. Since going to the Super Bowl following the 2002 season, Oakland has had the worst run defense in the NFL, allowing 141.7 yards per game on the ground and 122 touchdowns rushing. The Raiders have posted an NFL-worst 24-72 record in that time, losing at least 11 games in a record six consecutive years.
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