Buffalo Bills vs Oakland Raiders Week 8 NFL Preview

The Buffalo Bills head into Week 8 fresh off a home victory against the Buccaneers. Sunday, they play host to the Raiders who are well rested after a Thursday night show down vs Kansas City.

The Buffalo Bills will defend their home turf for the 4th time this year and will host the Raiders for the first time since 2011.

The Occasion: Week 8, 2017 NFL Season

Where: New Era Field – Orchard Park, New York

Time: 1:00 PM

TV: CBS

The Raiders

The Raiders have had a massive drop off from last season. But recently they have looked like they are coming back to life. The Raiders sit at 3-4.

For the second straight week, the Bills will play a young, emerging quarterback after scraping by Jameis Winston.

This time, it is Derek Carr. Carr has taken the NFL by storm and became a rich man in the offseason. He has led the Raiders offense to 310.7 yards per game, about 217 of which are passing yards.

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Carr’s composure and field awareness might make it difficult for the Bills to rattle him.

Buffalo’s pass rush needs to try to get to Carr early and force the Raiders running backs to get it done, which is a tough task for them with Marshawn Lynch suspended for the game.

No reunion for Lynch, the former Bill, in Buffalo this Sunday.

Shade

LeSean McCoy scored his first two touchdowns of the season last game. He was getting it done on the ground and racked up a nice chunk of yardage with some receptions.

Shady showed signs of his season coming to life. The Bills ideally need him to keep the play making Derek Carr off the field and not allow him to manage the game.

Turnovers

The Bills now lead the NFL with a +10 turnover margin. They will need a few more Sunday in order to win. The Raiders are a team who are capable of scoring on every possession.

In order to keep themselves in the game, the Bills will need to up that ratio even more.

Oakland sits at -2 in the turnover ratio which is tied for 22nd in the league. The Bills’ D needs to ball hawk on Sunday, which is something they should be able to do.

New Heroes

Last week, the Bills had a lot of new faces step up and make plays. With the injury report looking ideally similar to last week it shouldn’t be surprising to see some of these guys in a similar role.

Charles Clay is likely to be out again so Logan Thomas will get more opportunities.

EJ Gaines may not play allowing more depth in the secondary.

Who knows who will be the next man up on Sunday but I’m sure it will be someone.

Tyrod

Shameless Tyrod plug again this week. He is their guy again. Last week he helped the Bills get it done by using his carefulness with the football and his legs.

If Tyrod wants to hold the haters off for another week he needs to continue to keep drives alive by any means necessary.

Whether it’s scrambling for a few yards and a first or not taking a big chance and throwing screen passes the Bills’ success rides on his back.

Let’s see if he brings it again on Sunday.

Notes

Stephen Hauschka will look to continue his streak of consecutive games with a point. The Raiders’ defense is their Achilles heel so I’m not too worried. He will at least be able to get a field goal.

Like I briefly mentioned, the Raiders are well rested coming off a Thursday night game instead of the usual Sunday. I doubt the time zone difference will be a factor.

The Bills and Raiders is a match up of original AFL teams, so these teams have a rich history. In 1991 the BIlls defeated the Raiders (then in Los Angeles) 51-3 to go to their first Super Bowl.

All time, the Raiders lead the series 21-19, aside from the 51-3 blow out, the games are usually close.

The Bills’ 38-35 win in 2011 was a historic and one of the best Bills games during this entire “drought era.”

The Raiders defeated the Bills just last year in Oakland.

For Sure

This game has huge playoff implications. As both teams need a conference win and might need the head to head matchup in the AFC wild card race.

Next: Turnovers key in Bills win over the Bucs

Bold Prediction

It’ll be a high scoring affair and the Bills will pick off Derek Carr twice.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited for this game. I think it’ll be really entertaining and back and forth.

As always, please follow me on twitter.

Next week, the Bills head to Met Life Stadium to finish off their season series vs the Jets on Thursday night football.

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