Week 10 Game Day Thread: Colts at Raiders

This week, the 3-5-1 Colts travel to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders, who sit at 2-6. Somehow, this game of "the movable object vs the stoppable force", as Troy so perfectly put it earlier this week, is going to be one of the biggest games of the week.

Okay, it's not somehow. We all know how. This game will mark the debut of the Colts' new Head Coach, not just for the Colts, but as a coach on an NFL sideline. Everyone who is involved in football, or who just loves to watch the game, is going to be tuning in to see how someone with zero NFL coaching experience will do.

How many mistakes will he make? Will he call for a challenge on an obvious play that he won't win? Will he forget to call a timeout, or use one at a time that leaves everyone scratching their heads? Tune in Sunday, Sunday, Sunday at 4:05! Where we'll sell you the whole seat, but you're only gonna need the eeeedge!

That is more than enough intrigue for a game between two teams who are currently double digit seeds in the 16 team AFC, but wait! There's more!

Somehow, the scheduling gods managed to line it up so that he would be making his debut against Josh McDaniels, the coach who accepted Ballard's offer to become Head Coach of the Colts, and then tucked his tail and ran back to cower under the protection of Belichick. Based on his team's performance so far, if they manage to lose to a Head Coach who has never coached on an NFL (or college) sideline, then McDaniels might be forced to tuck (pun intended) and run back to New England, yet again. (Maybe that's why Belichick didn't bother naming an OC, because he knew he would have his old one back before the first snow fall on the coast. Hmmmmm...)

This time, his return would be with the stench of two failed tenures as a Head Coach under his belt. Some people are just meant to max out at the Coordinator level. We may find out very soon that is the case for him.

With the eyes of the sports world on this showdown, it's nearly impossible to make a prediction on how it will turn out. But hell, I'm going to do it anyway!

I'm guessing the team comes out fired up to prove to the world that they aren't the talentless Jr. High team playing among pros that the media has made them out to be, since the firing of Frank Reich. I wouldn't even be shocked to see them manage to score in the first quarter, or even on the first drive (gasp!).

I'm going to put the final score at:

Colts 23 (yes, over 20)

Raiders 20

Let's set the over/under for Jeff Saturday chest bumps to players at 1.5. I'll take the over on that, as I could see him giving the entire offensive line one, if they manage to punch in a rushing TD, at some point.