Expectations were low for Thursday Night Football this week and for a few good reasons.
Both the Chargers and Raiders are out of the NFL Playoff picture and trotted out backup quarterbacks. The Raiders have an interim head coach at the helm, while the Chargers have a head coach on the hot seat.
More importantly for bettors, the two teams combined for just seven points in Week 14. So when the over/under closed at 36 for Thursday's Primetime game, bettors piled on the under. According to Action Network's public betting data, 56% of the betting tickets and 67% of the money bet on the total landed on the under.
When the Raiders came out of the gates with 21 unanswered points — more points than they'd scored in the past two weeks combined — it was a bad sign for everyone who bet the under. When the Raiders doubled that score by halftime, it was both embarrassing for the Chargers and a first in the NFL since 1990.
It only got worse for the Chargers. They finally scored in the third quarter but were still outscored 14-7 in the frame, and trailed by 49 points entering the fourth quarter. (That hadn't happened since 2014 when the Falcons did it.)
In the end, the two teams scored 84 points — going over the total by 48 points. That is the largest over/under margin since 2019 (49ers-Saints). The Raiders scored franchise record 63 points after scoring 46 combined in their previous four games.
