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Published: September 13, 2009
The San Diego Chargers will open up the NFL regular season with a road trip to AFC West division rival the Oakland Raiders on ESPN NFL Monday Night Football in week 1 of the NFL regular season. Kickoff time in Oakland is scheduled for 10:15PM Eastern Time and ESPN will provide the national television coverage. The LVSC NFL odds makers opened the betting line in this game and the road team San Diego Chargers opened as 7 point favorites with the over under coming in at 44 1/2. The early money from the NFL sports betting public has been all Chargers money as the defending AFC West champion San Diego Chargers are currently a 9 ½ point favorite. The bettors have bet the total downward as the over under currently is lined at 43. NFL money line bettors can play the San Diego Chargers at –500 with the Oakland Raiders bringing back +400 to win without the aid of getting points.
The Chargers got a bit of good news when linebacker Shawne Merriman would be available for this game following some mishap with his girlfriend that led to no charges behind filed on the star linebacker. The Raiders will lean on their strong running game as Darren McFadden, Justin Fargas and Michael Bush will need to have good rushing totals so Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell can avoid obvious passing downs. The Raiders acquired defensive tackle Richard Seymour to help a very porous run defense that allowed just less than 160 yards per game. The best defense for the Raiders will be for their offense to limit the Chargers possessions and keep moving the sticks and allow for JaMarcus Russell to attack for the occasional big play when his run game is working. That’s how the Raiders won 3 of their final 6 games of the season in 2008. If the Raiders cannot run they cannot win. Phillip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers offense are very explosive as the unit averaged 345 yards of total offense last year. Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera will be more aggressive with this defense and look to put pressure on JaMarcus Russell. But the Chargers better pick their spots and be aware that the Raiders can run and convert first downs on any down and distance behind all three of their quality backs. It comes down to this for the Chargers, limit first down yardage for the Raiders and force JaMarcus Russell to win the game.
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NFL Trend: San Diego Chargers are 7-0 ATS in their past 7 meetings at Oakland
The Wagerline consensus has 70.8% of the NFL bettors on San Diego –9 1/2
The Wagerline consensus has 61.7% of the NFL bettors playing over 43
