![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Nnamdi-Asomugha-raiders-29-300x168.jpg\" "\\"Nnamdi-Asomugha-raiders-29\\"")
The battle of unbeatens by the Bay will take place on Saturday when the San Francisco 49ers (2-0) visit the Oakland Raiders (2-0).\u00a0 Both teams have covered their last three games dating back to last season and are hoping to parlay a winning preseason into a successful regular season.\u00a0 The Raiders opened at -2.5 by the NFL odds makers but have since been bet down to -1 against the 49ers.<\/p>\n
Last year, San Francisco edged Oakland 21-20 thanks to an 18-point fourth quarter.\u00a0 The Raiders led 14-3 heading into the fourth behind touchdown passes from quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Bruce Gradkowski.\u00a0 Former starter Russell is no longer with the team after he was released in the offseason while reserve Gradkowski is out due to injury.\u00a0 Their replacements Jason Campbell and Kyle Boller have been the difference this year during the team\u2019s unbeaten start.<\/p>\n
Campbell will make his first home start in front of Raider Nation after winning the first two games on the road.\u00a0 He looked impressive in a 32-17 win over the Bears last week, completing 10-of-20 passes for 170 yards and scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run.\u00a0 Campbell also led two other scoring drives that led to a pair of 43-yard field goals by kicker Sebastian Janikowski.<\/p>\n
Boller was also sharp in relief of Campbell, connecting on 7-of-9 passes for 55 yards one week after going 12-of-21 for 148 and a touchdown in a 17-9 at Dallas.\u00a0 The combination of running backs Michael Bush and Michael Bennett has done some damage on the ground as well, combining for 189 yards on 42 carries in the two games.\u00a0 Oakland will get another boost on Saturday with the return of Darren McFadden, who has sat out so far with a hamstring injury.\u00a0 McFadden is expected to start for the Raiders and will need a good performance to hold off Bush for the top job heading in the regular-season opener at Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The 49ers are expected to get their lead runner back too with Frank Gore likely seeing his first action of the preseason.\u00a0 Gore has not played in the first two games and was one of three offensive stars for San Francisco who sat out last week\u2019s 15-10 win over the Vikings.\u00a0 Newly-signed free agent Brian Westbrook will make his debut as well in hopes of giving the team some more depth at running back and possibly serving as Gore\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n
Starting wide receiver Michael Crabtree (neck) and tight end Vernon Davis (knee) have also missed time but could play vs. Oakland despite injuries in order to give quarterback Alex Smith some added weapons.\u00a0 Smith is already playing behind an offensive line featuring two rookie starters in Mike Iupati and Anthony Davis and could use all the help he can get right now.<\/p>\n
San Francisco has played well defensively in the preseason, yielding three touchdowns, including just one through the air.\u00a0 Linebacker Patrick Willis put Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre on his back on his third play since returning from yet another premature retirement and should set the tone for the 49ers again this year, following the lead of head coach Mike Singletary.<\/p>\n
For the NFL Free Pick take the 49ers +1 tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The battle of unbeatens by the Bay will take place on Saturday when the San Francisco 49ers (2-0) visit the Oakland Raiders (2-0).\u00a0 Both teams have covered their last three games dating back to last season and are hoping to parlay a winning preseason into a successful regular season.\u00a0 The Raiders opened at -2.5 by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2635,2615,2216,1930,1922,300,2509,299],"class_list":["post-6639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-49ers-raiders-preview","tag-nfl-football-lines","tag-nfl-football-picks","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-preseason-betting","tag-san-francisco-49ers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6642,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions\/6642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}