PRO FOOTBALL : Without Holdouts Powell, McElroy, Jet Line Couldn’t Hold Out Raiders

No one could have enjoyed the first Sunday of the National Football League season more than a couple of agents, the ones who represent the New York Jets’ starting offensive tackles, Marvin Powell and Reggie McElroy.

Correction: Make that last year’s starting tackles.

This year’s starting tackles are Guy Bingham and Ted Banker.

Powell and McElroy are holding out.

They have been telling the Jets all along how much they’re worth. Today, the Jets have the evidence, unless they’ve already burned the game films of their 31-0 loss to the Raiders at the Coliseum.

With Bingham and Banker at the tackles, the Jets saw the Raiders sack quarterback Ken O’Brien 10 times for 61 yards in losses.

O’Brien was sacked at least once on eight of the Jets’ 11 possessions. On two other possessions, O’Brien threw interceptions while trying to avoid being sacked.

“Ten sacks?” said Bingham, still in shock when someone told him the damage. He shook his head. “I don’t know what to say,” he said. “That’s terrible.”

A television interviewer tried to make it easy for New York Jet Coach Joe Walton.

“Your pass protection was weak at times,” the interviewer said. “Was that a problem for you?”

“Weak at times ?” Walton said.

“I’ve got news for you,” he said. “Our pass protection was a problem, yes.”

Center Joe Fields talked politely with reporters for several minutes, then excused himself.

“I’ve got to go check on my quarterback,” he said.

It came as a surprise to no one that he began his search in the training room, where they keep all the Band-Aids.

When Fields opened the door, a reporter looked inside and said that O’Brien’s hair was standing on end.

Even in retreat, O’Brien hadn’t played that poorly. He completed 16 of 29 passes for 192 yards.

“He did a hell of a job doing as much as he did,” Walton said of the third-year quarterback from Cal-Davis.

Later, when O’Brien emerged from the training room, he said he was not hurt. Nor, he said, had he been hurt at any time during the game.

“They’re not big enough,” he said of the Raiders.

Then he smiled.

Just kidding fellas.

After trailing at halftime, 21-0, O’Brien had the Jets moving in the right direction, for a change, on their first possession of the second half.

He was almost sacked in the end zone on the first play but escaped and completed a 12-yard pass to fullback Tony Paige. Five plays later, including two more completions to the fullback, the Jets were at the Raider 32.

But on second down, O’Brien was looking for running back Freeman McNeil along the sideline. All he saw was Raider defensive end Howie Long. O’Brien threw it anyway. Raider safety Stacey Toran stepped in front of McNeil and swiped the ball, returning it 76 yards for a touchdown.

“That probably shouldn’t have been thrown,” O’Brien said. “Not probably. It shouldn’t have been thrown.”

The only other time the Jets threatened was late in the third quarter and early in the fourth on a drive from their 27 to the Raider 14.

If for no other reason, the drive was significant because O’Brien completed two passes to wide receiver Jojo Townsell, formerly of the Express and UCLA. It was the first time all day that O’Brien had completed a pass to someone other than a running back or a tight end.

But on second down from the Raider 15, O’Brien was thrown for a seven-yard loss by defensive end Lyle Alzado. On third down, O’Brien was sacked by defensive end Sean Jones. A field-goal attempt failed.

“They showed us a lot of things,” O’Brien said later. “They just got in and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback.”

O’Brien refused to place blame on the tackles.

“We go with what we have,” he said.

“It wasn’t just one guy who was getting in all the time,” he added.

Indeed, six different Raiders were credited with sacks. Jones, a 6-7, 275-pound second-year man from Northeastern, was the leader with three.

Asked for his impression of Jones, Bingham said, “Big.”

But as ineffective as the Jets’ passing game was, their running game was even more so.

They gained only 62 yards rushing. McNeil, another former UCLA player, had 44 of them, but it took him 17 carries to do it.

A man with a microphone told McNeil that it looked to him as if the Raider defense dominated.

“You saw it the same way I did,” McNeil said. “They were dominant.

“They were everywhere, it seemed like.”

Last week, McNeil appealed for Powell and McElroy and management to get together.

“They’re my livelihood,” he said of the tackles.

But after Sunday’s game, he refused to use their absence as an excuse.

Neither did Walton.

Both gave the Raiders credit.

“They’re a hell of a football team,” Walton said. “They have a great defense. They’re going to give a lot of people problems.”

The only time the Jets were able to celebrate Sunday was late in the third quarter, when defensive end Mark Gastineau sacked Raider quarterback Jim Plunkett. It was one of the Jets’ four sacks.

As the Jets were trailing, 28-0, at the time, it was a small celebration.

Actually, Gastineau was the only one celebrating.

The crowd booed. Some of his teammates probably did, too.

Gastineau’s playing time was limited because of a broken right thumb. Wearing a cast that extended to his elbow, he had to ask a reporter for help buttoning his shirt after the game.

Perhaps because of the final score, he had little to say about his feud with the Raiders’ Howie Long.

In a conference-call interview with New York reporters last week, Long said, in effect, that Gastineau’s impressive sack statistics weren’t doing the Jets much good so long as they are a losing team.

Gastineau took it personally.

He said that Long started the feud during last season’s Pro Bowl, when the Raider defensive end refused to return his high-five.

Adding insult to insult, Long also stole Gastineau’s helmet after that game.

Long wore it to practice one day last week.

“I wore it one play and got kicked on my rear end,” Long said Sunday. “I took it right off. I got, what they call in the business, pinned.”