Our ESPN experts’ Week 3 picks are in.
One pick stands out and alone. Adam Schefter is the only person on the panel to pick the 0-2 Oakland Raiders over the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers.
It got me thinking. What does Schefter know? I reached out to him to get his thoughts. Here’s Schefter’s reasoning: “If the Raiders hadn't lost their long-snapper in the first game of the season, they would have beaten San Diego. Then we would be talking that the Raiders are tough at home. But they did lose their long snapper, they played a poor game after a late Monday night game going across the country for an early start, and now they're back home again. Pittsburgh has a bye week next week to look forward to, it's coming off a nice win off the Jets, and the one thing we know about this league is, it rarely holds to form. Plus, last week 14 of 16 home teams won. I know it's going out on a limb saying the Raiders will beat the Steelers. But it was going out on a limb last week to say the Cardinals would upset the Patriots, too.”
Sounds reasonable enough. I asked Schefter if he was surprised he was the Lone Ranger on the Oakland pick.
“It might just mean one game that everyone picks up on me,” Schefter said. “But it could mean I pick up a game on everyone, too. As they always say, that's why they play the game.”
Sunday evening we’ll know if Schefter was in to something or if the Raiders’ problems will continue.