Welcome to the first of several important tilts over the next three days! Many call this the wildcard-iest of all the weekends on the calendar and I can’t disagree. Let’s pretend to break this one down, shall we?

To The Game!

Raiders/Bengals:

-Both squadoos are 10-7 but they’re of different qualities methinks. But imagine how much better Vegas’ record would be if they were still led by a bigoted shithead!

-Shall we count all the factors against the Raiders? Well, it’s a short week for them, they played an emotionally/physically draining overtime game, they’re traveling across three time zones and are playing a cold weather game.

-It’s not a large sample but Derek Carr is the complete opposite of undefeated in all five tilts he’s played where the weather was below 37 degrees.

-Give Coach Bisaccia (rhymes with focaccia) credit-he’s maximized what talent there is on the team, winning the last four games of the season by 4 points or less.

-Burrow (tosser of almost 1,000 yards with an 11.4(!) YPA in his last two games) thinks he’s all the way back from his knee injury, indicating that he’s finally able to evade defender’s pass rush in a way that he couldn’t earlier in the year. This might just come in handy given that Maxx Crosby is facing off against Riley Rief’s backup.

-Gotta Run: Jacobs has rounded into form at just the right time-running for 129 and 132 in two of the last three weeks. He should be the key because Cincy defends outside wr’s well if Carr has to throw if Vegas falls behind. A guy like Renfrow just won’t cut it.

Let’s do this!