In Week 14, the Vikings are slight road favorites over the Raiders.

The Vikings returned to work on Monday after getting a week off during their bye week. They’re getting ready to head to Vegas this weekend to face the Raiders in a game that the Vikings desperately need to win in order to keep pace in the NFC wild card race.

Minnesota is a 2.5-point favorite over Las Vegas, which is also coming off a bye week. The Raiders are 5-7 and have an uphill battle to make the AFC playoffs, with four of their last five games against.500 or better teams.

After going 3-5 this season, the Raiders sacked head coach Josh McDaniels and replaced him with interim coach Antonio Pierce. Pierce’s first two games saw them beat the Giants and Jets to climb back to.500, but they then lost to the Dolphins and Chiefs before the bye.

This season, the Raiders have utilized three different quarterbacks. At the start of the season, Jimmy Garoppolo was the starter, but he struggled and was eventually benched in favor of fourth-round rookie Aidan O’Connell, who will start against the Vikings. This season, Brian Hoyer has also seen action. Despite a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4-to-6, O’Connell has shown some encouraging indications in recent weeks.

The Raiders have some tremendous star quality on their roster for a five-win team that the Vikings will have to account for. O’Connell gets to pass to Josh Jacobs and throw to Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers on offense. He also boasts a strong offensive line led by Kolton Miller at left tackle. Vegas’ greatest overall player is pass rusher Maxx Crosby, an excellent edge defender who has 11.5 sacks and ranks fourth in football with 64 pressures. Robert Spillane, a linebacker, leads the defense in tackles and interceptions.

To be clear, if the Vikings are serious about making the playoffs, they must defeat this club. The Raiders are ranked 27th in DVOA and can’t win on either side of the ball. They rank 29th in yards, 27th in scoring, and 27th in EPA per play. The defense has been slightly improved, ranking twenty-first in yards, nineteenth in scoring, and nineteenth in EPA per play. The Raiders have a turnover differential of -7, barely ahead of the Vikings, who have a differential of -8.

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The Vikings should be able to move the ball against the Raiders if they can take care of the football and pay special attention to Crosby. And Brian Flores’ defense, which has been consistently strong over the last two months, will make life difficult for O’Connell.