[4:05 PM] Bills @ Raiders

Who will WIN this matchup?

Buffalo Bills (6-5)

@ Oakland Raiders (9-2)

• The Raiders, who are one game ahead of Kansas City in the division but have gone 13 seasons without a playoff appearance, improved to 9-2 last week as they edged Carolina 35-32 for their fifth consecutive overall victory – and third straight at home – but saw budding star Derek Carr suffer a dislocated pinkie finger on his throwing hand.

• Carr will need to be fully functional versus the Bills, who have won two straight following a three-game slide and are looking to halt a league-worst 16-season playoff drought. Buffalo, which is one game back in the race for the second AFC wild card, faces a tall task on Sunday, however, as it has not won in Oakland since 1966 – losing eight straight there – and is just 1-10 in its last 11 on the road against the Raiders franchise, with the victory coming in overtime at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

• Buffalo hopes to have Marcell Dareus on the field Sunday after the defensive tackle sat out the latter stages of last week’s victory over Jacksonville with an abdominal strain and has been limited at practice. The Bills will be without Seantrel Henderson, however, as the offensive tackle received a 10-game suspension from the NFL for violating the league’s Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. Buffalo placed wide receiver Walt Powell and defensive tackle Corbin Bryant (shoulder) on injured reserve, signing Dez Lewis and DeAndre Coleman from the practice squad to respectively replace them, and also inked tight end Logan Thomas from Detroit’s practice squad to fill Henderson’s roster spot.

• Carr has put himself in the conversation for the MVP award this season thanks in part to the five fourth-quarter comebacks he has orchestrated. He has led nine game-winning drives in the final period or overtime since 2015, which puts him one behind Detroit’s Matthew Stafford for the most in the league in that span. Oakland may have another player in the running for MVP in Khalil Mack, who was named both the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for November and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week – for the second time this season – after becoming the first player to record a sack, interception-return touchdown, forced fumble and fumble recovery in the same game since Charles Woodson accomplished the feat in 2009.

• Raiders RB Latavius Murray has been limited at practice with an ankle injury.

StreakSmarts Pick: Oakland Raiders

Confidence: 5/10