The Las Vegas Raiders come into this week 8 preview against the Detroit Lions a desperate team.
After a 2 game-winning streak, the team was absolutely embarrassed by the 1-5 Chicago Bears on the road in Chicago. It was the Bears first home victory in over a year and another disappointing defeat for Josh McDaniels’ squad. It doesn’t improve the optics for this week 8 preview.
Since Josh McDaniels has taken over, the Raiders have lost to a team led by an interim former high school football coach in his first game, a quarterback with only 3 days of practice, and now an undrafted rookie backup quarterback on a 1-5 team.
The Raiders are hoping to erase the stench of their previous defeat by going into Detroit on Monday Night Football. This isn’t the usual Lions team you might be used to. The 2023 Detroit Lions currently sit in first place in the NFC North, a division that they haven’t won since it was called the NFC Central in 1991 and included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Raiders are getting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo back for this game, and hopefully, cornerbacks Nate Hobbs and Jaqorian Bennett can come back as well. Hobbs has missed several games this season with an ankle injury that just won’t go away. The Raiders need to be at full strength for this one, as looking at this week 8 preview, the Lions are arguably the toughest test they have had so far this season.
Let’s get into the matchups to watch in this week 8 preview.
Matchups to Watch
Lions Edge Aidan Hutchinson (97)- Seth Wenig/ AP Photo
Raiders O-Line against Aidan Hutchinson
Aidan Hutchinson is the Lions version of Maxx Crosby. Both come from the state of Michigan, though Aidan was a top draft pick from the University of Michigan while Crosby was a late-round steal out of Eastern Michigan. Both enter this week 8 preview currently 1 and 2 in quarterback pressures this season.
The Raiders offensive line has been extremely inconsistent this season. They started off the season doing okay but have faltered at times along with the rest of the offense. The rushing attack hasn’t produced a 100-yard game at all this season, and a lot of that has been due to poor run blocking up front. It’s hard for any running back including Josh Jacobs to get going when they have to dodge 3-4 defenders just to get back to the line of scrimmage.
Looking at the week 8 preview, this is arguably the most important factor in the Raiders potential chances of winning on Monday night. They have to limit Hutchinson from wrecking the game. He’s not only a dominant rusher, however, but he is a playmaker himself. He has 4 career interceptions as an edge rusher in his first 2 seasons which is insane to consider.
Hutchinson is going to feast on Jimmy Garoppolo unless the Raiders offensive line collectively steps it up. It’s been a consistent unit out there every game in terms of who’s out there playing. Garoppolo needs as clean of a jersey as possible if the Raiders are going to have a chance of winning and that starts with limiting Hutchinson.
Amon Ra St. Brown vs Raiders Secondary
Raiders CB Marcus Peters (24)- Quinn Harris/Getty Images
The “Sun God” has been electric this season. St. Brown has gone off in basically every game this season and further established himself as one of the best wide receivers in the NFC. If not for Justin Jefferson on the Vikings, I would go ahead and argue he might be the best receiver in the entire NFC. If he played for a bigger market team like the Giants, he would have his name put up in the lights next to guys like Tyreek Hill with how he’s played the last couple of seasons.
The Raiders secondary has been better than expected this season, although they have had some serious lapses. Cornerback Marcus Peters has repeatedly dropped easy interceptions and is now being criticized along with the rest of the defense for some terrible tackling effort last week. In addition to that, there have been some injuries with players like Nate Hobbs going down for several weeks.
For this week 8 preview, the Raiders secondary is going up against a solid passing attack. There are other great targets for the Lions to go after. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta is playing like how everybody expected Raiders tight end Michael Mayer to play. Jameson Williams is coming off a gambling suspension which has limited his season stats but had a massive touchdown catch against the Tampa Bay Bucs a couple of weeks ago. Josh Reynolds is solid as well at receiver and is second on the team in yards. But St. Brown is the man.
If the Raiders want to win though, the secondary needs to get after St. Brown. Force Lions quarterback Jared Goff to go elsewhere with the ball. The Lions average the most yards after the catch in the entire NFL. The secondary is going to be tested all game long, and St. Brown is amazing at breaking tackles. If they can’t stop him from getting the football, they’re going to have to try and improve as a unit at bringing him down and limiting his yards after catches. Otherwise, he will break the game open.
The Mystery Box at Quarterback
Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo (10) – Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
Coming into this week 8 preview, who are the Raiders going to start at quarterback? Does it really matter at this point? Every Raiders quarterback has started at least one game and has more interceptions than touchdowns. Jimmy Garoppolo has all 3 wins, and in each of those 3 wins, he managed to limit himself to 1 interception.
Brian Hoyer was abysmal in his performance against the 1-5 Chicago Bears last week with 129 yards and a pick 6. Aidan O’Connell lost 3 fumbles and threw a game-losing interception in a 24-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Out of all of the options, the best chance to win comes with Garoppolo. This is ironic because he leads the entire NFL in interceptions.
At the current time of writing this week 8 preview, it is unknown who is going to start at quarterback because Garoppolo has a back injury. That’s why he missed last week in Chicago. He just returned to practice on Thursday, so his status is still up in the air. After Hoyer’s performance, you would have to think “AOC” would be the starter if Jimmy G can’t go on Monday, right? It seemed like the obvious choice to start him against Chicago, but McDaniels went with Hoyer.
Don’t be surprised if Hoyer gets the start again. Josh McDaniels said he doesn’t regret starting Hoyer against the Bears and isn’t going to second guess it because he saw Hoyer doing great in joint practices with the Rams… in August. Hoyer is an ex-Patriot and might be the option that coach McDaniels simply feels more comfortable with as a result.
Looking at this week 8 preview, whoever starts at quarterback needs to limit their turnovers as much as possible. The Raiders 3 wins all featured games where they limited themselves to 1 turnover. They haven’t had a single game this season without a turnover. Given how great the Lions defense is, I expect a tough matchup regardless of who the Raiders start.
Prediction
This isn’t a beautiful week 8 preview if you’re a member of Raider Nation. The Lions on paper at least are the superior team in every facet of the game except special teams. With the talent on the Lions as well as the Raiders lack of ability to execute on offense, this game has the potential to get ugly fast.
The Raiders have spent the 4th most amount of money in the entire league on their offense. They haven’t reached 21 points or more in a game offensively since week 17 of the 2022 season. They’re the first team to score under 20 points offensively in their first 7 games since the 2014 Jaguars who started 0-7. That doesn’t bode well for them in Detroit where the Lions have a tough defense that already crushed the Packers, a team the Raiders barely beat.
The Lions may be the kings of the NFC North this season and Monday in primetime will be their best chance to show everybody they are for real. They’re coming off a bad loss to the Baltimore Ravens last week, so expect them to come out angry and motivated to bite off some kneecaps. Dan Campbell is a great motivator and the superior head coach in this matchup and has them playing at a high level and I expect that to continue on Monday.
