Oakland Raiders vs San Diego Chargers Point Spread

San Diego -10
Over/Under 43

A couple of old West Coast AFL rivals having down years will try to salvage a little pride when the 3-9 Oakland Raiders visit the 4-8 San Diego Chargers on this week's NFL Network Thursday night broadcast (8:15 pm Eastern).

Oddsmaker.com is listing San Diego as 10-point home favorites for Thursday night's game, with a total of 43. The Chargers are also listed at -500 on the Oddsmaker moneyline, with the Raiders getting +400 as underdogs on the road.

Oakland has again been a disaster of a team this season. But the turning point for the Raiders may have come in Week 3, when at 1-1, Oakland blew a nine-point lead in the last five minutes at Buffalo and lost 24-23 on a field goal at the buzzer. Seven losses over their next nine games followed, including a 20-13 home defeat at the hands of the 1-10 Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday. And they changed head coaches, again, dumping Lane Kiffin and replacing him with Tom Cable, under whom Oakland is now 2-6.

San Diego, meanwhile, a season after getting within one win of the Super Bowl, has had just about everything go wrong this year. The Chargers have lost twice this season on the last play of the game, a couple more times in the waning moments, once on a botched call by a referee, and another time when they couldn't punch in the tying touchdown on a fourth-quarter 4th-and-goal from the Miami 1-yard line.

Last Sunday afternoon, the Chargers got outrushed by Atlanta 141-70 and outgained 348-201 in a 22-16 home loss to the Falcons.

But despite being four games under .500, San Diego has outscored opponents on the season 290-274.

The Bolts have swept the season series from Oakland the last five years in a row. And the Chargers beat the Raiders in their first matchup of this season, 28-18 as nine-point road chalk up in Oakland in Week 4. But the Raiders can count that loss as just another game they pissed away. Oakland led 15-0 at the half, and 15-3 through three quarters, before collapsing. And they blew the cover for their financial backers by allowing San Diego RB LaDainian Tomlinson to break through off-tackle and score from 41 yards out with just over a minute to go in the game, which provided the final 10-point margin.

The totals are 4-8 in Raiders games this season, which are averaging just 36 total points. Meanwhile, Chargers games are averaging a healthy 47 points this season, but the totals are only 5-7.