Thursday Night Football Odds: Chargers 7-Point Favorites Over Raiders

If you saw a public opinion poll that saw 82 percent of the voters on one side, the temptation would be to follow the crowd and agree with their stance. NFL betting is not a public opinion poll, although some handicappers make a living simply going against what the public thinks.

But 82 percent of the voting public in the OddsShark.com NFL Consensus data is backing the San Diego Chargers as the league returns to Thursday night action. They host the Oakland Raiders, who have lost two in a row in the Carson Palmer Era, but who have several trends pointing their way today on the Raiders-Chargers point spread.

Both teams are coming off losses and get a short week to straighten out their game. But check out the Raiders, getting it together as an underdog going 5-1 ATS past six games according to the Raiders Chargers matchup report.

“The Raiders are also perfect against the spread the past four meetings with the Chargers, giving some credence to the argument for the Raiders to come the number here,” said Mike Pickett of OddsShark.com. The Raiders have also been a solid bet within the AFC West, winning 8 of 10 straight up and covering the spread eight times as well.

For bettors who can’t quite back the Raiders and don’t trust the public opinion enough to back the Chargers, the total is an option. And there is plenty of UNDER history between these rivals.

“The past 11 meetings in San Diego have all heavily UNDER at 9-1-1, according to our NFL odds database,” said Pickett.

The best underdog number (+7, -105) and the best UNDER number (48, -105) available among books tracked by OddsShark.com were both at Bodog.

Check out full handicapping previews, score predictions and matchup reports and trends on every NFL game, all for free at SBNation’s odds partner OddsShark.com.