Green Bay Packers matchup not terribly unequal

At first glance, Sunday's meeting between the 4-8 and 10-2 Green Bay Packers appears to be a rather lopsided one. One team is on its way to the playoffs, the other is fighting to stay afloat in a weak 4 Brett Favre Purple jersey
division.Looking a bit closer, however, it isn't all that bad for Oakland.The Raiders are 10?-point underdogs heading into the contest at Lambeau Field this week. Only the Lions, who are hosting Dallas, are a bigger long shot to win in Week 14.Still -- at least on paper -- the Raiders may give Green Bay a run for its money.Oakland is coming off two consecutive wins over divisional opponents, in which the offense has put over 50 points on the board. Green Bay, on the other hand, is rebounding from a 10-point loss on the road against the Cowboys -- a game in which quarterback Brett Favre missed more than half because of a bruised right elbow and separated left shoulder.Unluckily for Oakland, Favre is expected to start his 250th consecutive game this weekend, extending a streak that began on Sept. 27, 1992. Raiders rookie QB JaMarcus Russell was 8 years old at the time.Despite the return of Favre to the Packers' offense, the Raiders should still be able to shake up Green Bay at home.Oakland's Achilles' heel this season has been its inability to stop the run. The Raider 'D' ranks 30th in rush yards against, allowing 148.0 each game. This season, Oakland has allowed eight different rushers to surpass the 100-yard mark, including three backups (Ron Dayne, Chester Taylor and Kolby Smith).However, on the other side of the football, Green Bay fields an equally ineffective rushing attack.The Packers also rank 30th in the category, and they gain just 85.3 yards on the ground each outing. Rookie halfback Ryan Grant has supplied a much-needed boost to the bottom-ranked unit, averaging 93.5 yards a game since Week 8. However, as a team, Green Bay still averages just 105.0 yards with Grant running the ball, still placing the Pack in the bottom half of the league.The strength of the Packers this season has been the Favre-led pass attack, which ranks second in the NFL. With receiving weapons Donald Driver and Greg Jennings by his side, Favre and the Packers throw for 293.1 yards per game. As a result, they put up a fifth-ranked 26.9 points per contest.The Raiders, though, are no pushover when it comes to defending the pass. Oakland ranked first in pass defense in '06 and, despite a slow start this season, currently ranks fifth in the category. The Rob Ryan-led secondary allows just 186.1 passing yards this year; last year, the group surrendered 150.8 yards.For Oakland, Sunday's game could be kept very close down to the final seconds with a few big plays Steelers 10 Santonio Holmes jersey
from the defense. With linebackers Thomas Howard and Kirk Morrison on the field, and cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha, Fabian Washington and Stanford Routt roaming the secondary, that's very possible.The oddsmakers say the Raiders are major underdogs. However, don't be too surprised if that opinion doesn't show up in the final score.