It’s No Ice Bowl, but Browns Out to Give Raiders Cold Shoulder

The Raiders are back for their first official appearance since the Ice Bowl in early 1981, when the wind-chill factor hit minus-40 and they helped quick-freeze the Cleveland Browns’ hopes for half a decade. A hotter time is expected in the old town today.

Raider Coach Tom Flores is comparing it to last season’s Chicago game, in which the young Bears, having just risen to the top of their division, demonstrated their mettle with an assault that threatened to send the Raiders home in ambulances.

The Bears were nursing no particular grudge then, but the Browns are now, dating back to the Ice Bowl, when then-Coach Sam Rutigliano made his famous decision.

Brian Sipe’s Kardiac Kids were 11-5 that season but lost, 14-12, when Rutigliano passed up a field goal from the Oakland Raiders’ 13 in the closing seconds and ordered another pass.

The Raiders’ Mike Davis intercepted in the end zone. A season later, cardiac arrest set in, to the tune of 5-11.

In the strike-shortened season after that, the Browns made the playoffs with a 4-5 record. They opened and closed in Los Angeles, where the Raiders waffled them, 27-10.

A season after that, the Browns went 9-7 and were eliminated on a tiebreaker. Rutigliano promised great things.

That was for last season. They went 5-11, and Rutigliano was fired.

But this is a different day. The Browns under Marty Schottenheimer, who used to baby-sit Tom Flores’ kids when he and Flores were teammates in Buffalo, are 4-2, with a three-game winning streak and a rock-ribbed defense, just like the Raiders.

The Browns’ outside linebacker tandem of Clay Matthews and Chip Banks, former USC stars, is often called the best in football. Strong safety Don Rogers is considered the next best thing to Kenny Easley, whom he replaced at UCLA. Cornerbacks Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon are telling the world that they’re better than the more famous Raider firm of Haynes & Hayes.

The local phenom, Bernie Kosar, is about to make his first hometown start, and old 80,098-seat Municipal Stadium was sold out 10 days ago, a dramatic turnaround. After last year’s hype and debacle, the city was slow to believe and the Browns loath to promise anything. They kept Kosar off the cover of the media guide and seemed pleased when journeyman Gary Danielson beat him out in the exhibition season.

Kosar went in for an injured Danielson in Game 4 and quarterbacked the game-winning touchdown drive. He won his first start last week in Houston, surprising the blitzing Oilers by scrambling. The Raiders want to see him do it against them.

Rod Martin said: “You try and put pressure on a young quarterback, to see if he’s going to crack up. He hasn’t played against the kind of pressure we’re going to put on him.”

The Raiders invited the effervescent Martin to speak at their weekly media breakfast. Among his comments were these on quarterback Marc Wilson’s comeback:

“I think basically it’s because of Rusty (Hilger). Rusty is putting pressure on him. Personally, I think that’s good. You need somebody behind you who’s going to force you to excel. . . . I think Marc did a good job last year up to the point he got hurt, but I didn’t see that he had that drive to come back. But now, with Rusty being the talent he is, I think it’s pushing him more.

“I think the whole team has found a new respect for Marc. He’s been around a few years, though he really hasn’t had a chance to be the starting quarterback at the beginning of the year. Jim Plunkett was still here and he was still a good quarterback. Plunkett took us to two Super Bowls.

“And I think Marc kinda sat back and accepted everything, instead of going out and getting it. But this year he’s turned it around. . . . The guys want to follow him. We’re going to follow him and take him there if that’s where he wants to go, to New Orleans (and the Super Bowl) with us.”

Raider Notes

The Raiders are three-point favorites. . . . Marc Wilson, who played last week with a separated left shoulder, is expected to start, though the Raiders won’t say. It would be the fifth straight game in which they’ve either gotten a quarterback hurt, or gone in with one hurting. . . . How basic have the Raiders gotten? The coaches call the plays, they run Marcus Allen a lot--he’s averaging 26 carries for 110 yards in the streak--and they don’t even turn the ball over any more. They’re plus-three for the season in turnovers, plus-six in the streak. . . . Said Tom Flores: “You’ve got to figure a way to win. That’s what I tell the team every day. It doesn’t have to be symphonically perfect. Whether it takes Lyle Alzado falling on a fumble that Rod Martin fumbled, or whether it takes a safety, or anything, it has to get done.” . . . Another confrontation: Brown rushers, second in the NFL, with former Express player Kevin Mack (5.1 a rush) and Earnest Byner (4.1), vs. the Raiders, who lead the AFC in rushing defense. . . . Whatever happened to JJ? John Jefferson, now with the Browns, hasn’t been thrown one forward pass.