An AFC West road trip in the late window, and it took the guys about six minutes to end up on the same number. The Raiders visit the Chargers on Sunday, September 20 at 4:05 PM ET in Los Angeles, CA, with Los Angeles laying 6.5 and the total at 43.5, and both Sean Green and Ryan Kramer landed on the Chargers minus the 6.5. The whole back-and-forth is in the NFL Picks Week 2 episode.
Raiders vs Chargers Odds
The Chargers are laying 6.5 at home and the total is 43.5. Both picks are on the favorite at that price.
Our Picks
- Ryan Kramer (@KramerCentric): LAC -6.5
- Sean Green (@SeanTGreen): LAC -6.5
Sean opened by calling it a tough handicap and saying he did not want to be on either side. Las Vegas won, but he thought they won badly: per the numbers he cited on the show, Cousins went 21 of 30 for 160 yards with two picks, and the Raiders graded first in defensive havoc rate while the Chargers sat 31st. He was not much kinder about Los Angeles. He noted the Chargers had only 22 minutes of possession against Arizona because they could not get a stop, said the loss was no fluke, and admitted he does not know whether that defense gets fixed in a week.
Ryan agreed with most of the read and used it to take the Chargers anyway. His comparison was the Jets: a team that beat an opponent he expects to be bad and turned it into a result that reads far better than it was. He kept using the word Fugazi about that two-touchdown win, said the advanced numbers from the game do not support it, and argued Harbaugh figures out whatever the Chargers thought they were doing with that offensive line. Zagging off the Raiders is what put him on Los Angeles, and he liked buying a team fresh off a dumpster fire while laying less than a touchdown.
Sean’s last word was the Chargers too. He called 6.5 probably too much adjustment through key number seven and repeated that laying that number with this defense makes him uneasy. The spot won him over: on the show he cited Harbaugh off a loss at 14-8 ATS, plus the angle on teams that lost outright as big favorites and remain favorites the following week. Fading the Raiders coming off a good-looking game was the tiebreaker.
Hear the full breakdown on the NFL Picks Week 2 episode, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Watch every game on YouTube, and download the SGPN app at sg.pn/links. See all our NFL Picks.
