NFL picks and predictions, Raiders vs. Bears 2015: Oakland is a big road favorite

For once, the Oakland Raiders aren't the laughingstock of the NFL. That honor currently belongs to the Chicago Bears, who are in the midst of a winless start and coming off their first shutout loss since 2002.

It's difficult to have a performance worse than the Bears did against the Seahawks when they flew all the way to the West Coast to punt 10 times and leave. Speaking of punting, that's exactly what the Bears seem to be doing on the season after they started trading away players, including defensive end Jared Allen and linebacker Jon Bostic.

Jimmy Clausen has played terribly in place of Jay Cutler over these last two weeks, completing 23 of 40 passes for 184 yards with an interception. Cutler has returned to practice, but he's still expected to miss at least another week with a hamstring injury. So that leaves Clausen to go up against an improved Raiders team which has put a lot of points on the board recently.

One week after second-year quarterback Derek Carr threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to propel the Raiders to a 37-33 win over the Ravens, Oakland put 27 points up on the board in a winning effort against Cleveland. It was the Raiders' first win in the Eastern time zone in six years.

Carr has thrown for 665 yards and five touchdowns with only one interception in the two Raiders' wins, while blossoming rookie wideout Amari Cooper has caught 15 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown in the past two weeks. Young running back Latavius Murray ran for 139 yards in Week 3 as well.