The Oakland Raiders and Josh Jacobs square off with the Detroit Lions in Week 9. While the Raiders are 3-4 and trying to get back to .500, the Lions are 3-3-1 and trying to go above .500 on the year.

Both teams will need to have someone step up for them if they want to pull out the victory. For the Raiders, who that is going to be is pretty obvious.

Rookie running back Josh Jacobs has been absolutely fantastic all year long, and he is in line for a massive game in Week 9. Here is why.

Jacobs has 620 yards and four touchdowns on 124 carries. That's 5.0 yards per carry. He also has 11 receptions for 102 more yards.

In fact, the only game Jacobs didn't run for at least 4.0 yards per carry was Week 1 against the Denver Broncos. That's right, his first game of the year against a very good defense. That's the only time Jacobs hasn't hit the 4.0 yards per carry mark.

Oh, and he still ran for 85 yards and scored two touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Detroit defense has not been good against the run at all this year. The Lions are giving up 130.7 rushing yards per game. That is the seventh most allowed in the NFL to this point.

Through seven games, the Lions have allowed at least 100 rushing yards in six of them. That's not a good ratio, that's not a good ratio at all.

The main reason though is pretty simple. This is a matchup between two high-powered offenses. Due to that, you should expect a lot of points to be put up.

However, you could also expect each team to want to try and dictate the pace. Because whoever wins the time of possession battle will likely win the game.

With that in mind, you have to look at the two offenses. Detroit is all about the pass. They've been that way for a very long time. The fact that Kerryon Johnson is hurt only serves to make this more obvious.

Meanwhile, the Raiders are more balanced. Sure, you could argue that the Lions have 188 rushing attempts and the Raiders have just 192. That's not big difference at all.

However, the numbers are staggering outside of that. First, Detroit is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry and have two rushing touchdowns. Oakland on the other hand is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and have six rushing touchdowns this year.

Meanwhile, the Lions have 250 passing attempts and the Raiders have 222 passing attempts. So while that small difference in rushing attempts doesn't seem like much, in the grand scheme of things it's pretty significant.

Due to that, you can expect the Raiders to want to run the ball early and often to get the Lions out of a rhythm. Who do you think they'll go to for those carries? Josh Jacobs of course. A heavy workload coupled with the fact that he's going up against a bad defense and you've got a big game coming for the rookie running back.