Last week, Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr was nearly the sole holdout in picking the Raiders to edge past the Buffalo Bills. Well, anyone backing the Raiders in Week 7 has a lot more company, with a good chunk of the experts giving them a real shot against the Rams Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
Covering the spread against Buffalo apparently buys a team some respect. The computer models still like the Rams comfortably, but some of the humans are far less sure, and a few of them switched sides from last week. Even the Raiders Wire staff is on board too, picking the Raiders 3-1 with an average score of 27-25.
NFL.com's panel can barely agree
Three of NFL.com's five analysts picked the Rams, with Jeremy Bergman at 24-17, Gennaro Filice at 27-24 and Dan Parr at 31-27. The other two went with the Raiders, and both picks come with a story.
Bobby Kownack had the Bills hanging 35 points on the Raiders last week. Now he has the Raiders winning a 17-14 rock fight, which is quite a change of heart in seven days.
Brooke Cersosimo has the Raiders by one at 25-24, and the Rams clearly gave her more to think about than she expected.
"Of all the teams in the league, I would not have guessed the Rams would give me pause at this point in the season," Cersosimo wrote.
She also has the game ending on a Raiders field goal in the final minute.
Bleacher Report's experts traded seats
The funniest twist came from Bleacher Report. Maurice Moton was the panel's lone Raiders backer last week, and this week he jumped to the Rams, while Gary Davenport, who doubted the Raiders against Buffalo, came over to their side.
"Why lay this many points on the road against a Raiders team that just covered the same spread against Buffalo?" Davenport wrote.
Moton expects the Rams to adjust without Davante Adams by leaning on their tight ends. The panel finished 4-3 in favor of the Raiders against a 4.5-point spread, with Ian Hanford, Wes O'Donnell and Brent Sobleski joining Davenport.
Pete Prisco and Mike Florio keep it tight
CBS Sports' Pete Prisco picked the Rams to win by a single point, 28-27, which is a polite way of taking the Raiders against the spread.
"They still have Matt Stafford. He can light up a defense, which he will do here," Prisco wrote. "But the Rams will give up some big plays to the Raiders, who hang around."
The rest of the CBS panel split 4-3 for the Rams against the spread, with Tyler Sullivan and Jamey Eisenberg standing with Prisco. Meanwhile, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio has the Rams winning 26-23 and sees a season on the line for Los Angeles.
"If the Rams get to five losses with 10 games left, they could be done," Florio wrote.
The computers aren't buying it
The models are far more confident than we (humans). Dimers gives the Rams a 70.8% chance to win with a 26-20 projection, and the Covers AI model has Los Angeles winning 27-20.
Five of the seven human score predictions in this roundup land within three points, though. These experts expect another one-score game, and the Raiders have lost two of their last three games by a field goal.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders vs. Rams Week 7 expert picks and predictions for Sunday's game