Sunday sees the Carolina Panthers take on the Las Vegas Raiders in Andy Dalton’s first start of the season.
The benching of Bryce Young has caused the market to move in Carolina’s favor, but I’m not buying into the noise as my Panthers vs. Raiders predictions lay out why I’m taking the home side to cover.
Check out my NFL picks for September 22 below!
Panthers vs Raiders prediction
My best betRaiders -6 (-108 at BetMGM)
My analysisIt’s hard to argue with the logic Andy Dalton could offer the team a better chance of winning. After all, Bryce Young has completed 31 of 56 passes for just 245 yards, failing to score a touchdown while being picked off three times.
Dalton has only played one full game since joining the Carolina Panthers at the start of last season, but in that game, he threw two touchdown passes and completed 34-of-58 for 361 yards.
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Raiders are in the Gardner Minshew era, and the results have been mixed so far. An opening weekend loss to the Chargers was grounds for concern, but the team bounced back in style last week with a come-from-behind win over Baltimore.
The Raiders aren’t an exceptional team, but they do the fundamentals well and play aggressive football, turning every single game into a real fight that will make them tough to beat.
The question coming into this game is just how much does a quarterback change impact this Carolina offense and the team as a whole? Last week the Chargers beat it by 23 points, and the week before that, it lost by 37 to the Saints.
As much as Young rightly deserves criticism for how he’s performed, this isn’t an incredible team without him. It’s hard to see how a journeyman QB can instil enough confidence in the offense to make the Panthers cover a six-point spread in Las Vegas’ home opener.
The Raiders will do enough to win and cover the spread in the process.
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Panthers vs Raiders same-game parlay
Raiders -6Brock Bowers Over 4.5 receptionsBowers anytime touchdown
+525 at BetMGM
In addition to my best bet, I’m also going to double down on Brock Bowers — arguably the most impressive of this year’s rookies so far.
He’s had 17 targets across two games and clearly has the trust of Minshew, making six catches in Week 1 and hauling in all nine of his targets last week. He’s already accumulated 156 receiving yards but has yet to find the end zone. However, I’m going to back him to do so this week.
We saw the Saints TEs score two TDs against this Panthers’ defense in Week 1, and a player of the quality of Bowers and one being fed a high volume of passes has a great chance to score his first NFL touchdown.
Learn how to bet a same-game parlay with these helpful tips and strategies.
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Panthers vs Raiders odds
Panthers vs Raiders live odds
Panthers vs Raiders opening odds
- Spread: Carolina +6.5 (-110) | Las Vegas -6.5 (-110)
- Moneyline: Carolina +240 | Las Vegas -300
- Over/Under: Over 38 (-110) | Under 38 (-110)
Odds courtesy of BetMGM
Panthers vs Raiders spread and Over/Under analysis
- The Panthers are 1-9 on the moneyline in their last 10 and 3-7 ATS.
- The Under has landed in five of the last seven Panthers games.
- The Panthers are 3-1 ATS against the Raiders but the most recent meeting was in 2020 and the Raiders covered.
- Both teams are 1-1 with the total points this season.
