The Dog House Boos Were Familiar Tune to Raiders’ Wilson

When the local fans roll into Cleveland Stadium for a football game, they are barking, and many are wearing large, plastic dog bones on their hats.

See, the team’s defense is affectionately known as the Dogs. At least it was a term of endearment, until late Sunday afternoon.

The loudest group of fans sits in the uncovered baseball bleachers directly behind the East end zone, their backs to Lake Eerie. They call this section of seats the Dog House.

When Raider quarterback Marc Wilson lined his team up for one last chance Sunday, he was close enough to the Dog House to smell the Alpo on the fans’ breath. The noise was deafening.

But what’s a little yapping and snarling and woofing from a kennel full of strangers, compared to what Wilson has been facing lately. This is a guy whose friends and neighbors have turned on him.

Tired of waiting for miracles from the six-year veteran, the Coliseum fans have treated Wilson like a dog, booing him as soon as he sticks his thin neck out of the Coliseum tunnel.

When Wilson, an honest man, tells you with a straight face that none of this booing and barking bothers him, at home or on the road, you have to believe him.

Because Sunday, Wilson stood as cool as the wind off the lake and drilled an eight-yard touchdown pass into the Dog House end zone to beat the Browns.

This was a guy who was playing “nicked up,” as Raider guard Charley Hannah described it. Or as Wilson said, “held together with a little glue and tape.”

The week before, Wilson suffered a separated left shoulder while being sacked, but played anyway. The night before this game, Wilson got the flu, vomited a couple times, and was nauseated all day Sunday, as were several of his teammates.

Cleveland will do that to you.

Rookie quarterback Rusty Hilger was, as Wilson said in an unintentional pun, “Sick as a dog.”

But if all Wilson’s heroics of the last two Sundays, capped off by the big pass, thrilled him, he hid it well.

He was considerably lower key than Raider Coach Tom Flores, who said, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a game like this. There is so much excitement, so much emotion.”

Wilson, however, refused to get carried away with his own contribution to the big day.

“If we’d have won some other way, that would’ve been fine with me,” Wilson said when reporters tried to get him to get excited about his exciting final pass. “I’m just trying to do the best I can. You guys are trying to make something big out of everything.”

Maybe, but consider: This is a famous, big-time team searching for a quarterback. One guy (Jim Plunkett) may be too old, and the other guy (Hilger) is probably too young.

Wilson? He’s the right age (28), but there has been growing speculation that maybe the former BYU whiz just doesn’t have the right stuff for pro ball.

Whatever it is that makes decent quarterbacks great seemed to be eluding Wilson.

But the last two games, playing with a big injury, and then breaking the Browns’ hearts, may have signaled a dramatic turnabout in Wilson’s career. If nothing else, he has certainly put a lot of critics on hold.

Can the home fans possibly boo Marc Wilson at the Coliseum a week from tonight?

“It doesn’t matter,” Wilson said when asked if this game might change the L.A. fans’ and L.A. press’ perception of his abilities. “I don’t care about the criticism. They can keep saying those things, it doesn’t bother me.

“I think this is a tremendous boost for the team. I’m not trying to show anybody anything.”

But he is showing them anyway. His stats Sunday were not spectacular, 15 for 36, for 213 yards. But seven of those incompletions came late in the final drive, down by the Dog House. And twice Raider receivers dropped would-be touchdown passes.

And what’s that famous Al Davis three-word credo, baby?

One of the knocks against Wilson has been that maybe he’s too nice to be a winning quarterback. Sunday’s flu was as close as he’ll ever get to a hangover, and off the field he’s about as intimidating a presence as a puppy dog guarding the mansion.

But if the Browns figured Wilson to be one of those softie Southern California cheese eaters, then these Dogs were barking up the wrong brie.

On the field, the last two weeks, Wilson has been as tough and commanding as he needed to be.

When Cleveland fans tried to drown out his signals on the last drive, Wilson stepped back and waited. And waited. And waited.

“I thought maybe it was gonna be a night game,” Wilson said.

When he called that final play, went over the pass routes in the huddle, Wilson looked at Todd Christensen and said, “Get open.”

“I really wasn’t nervous,” Wilson said of the final drive. “We were determined. This is the Raiders. I’ve seen Jim Plunkett do this before. I’ve seen Ken Stabler do this before.

“I think when the team is in this situation, we think back, we can draw on experience.”

Plunkett and Stabler had their glory days as Raider quarterbacks. Plunkett may be back, but the Raiders are looking for a new guy to fill the position.

Will it be Wilson? His resume is looking better every week.