Kingdome Continues to Be Torture Chamber for Raiders : Seahawks Steal Four Passes in 33-3 Triumph

Those long Raider memories of Kingdome indignities got a lot longer on a Sunday that lasted about a decade for them, time enough for the Seattle Seahawks to intercept Marc Wilson four times, turn a Raider field goal try into a touchdown and inflict other insults too numerous to mention in a paragraph.

Add them all up and the Seahawks won, 33-3, ending the Raiders’ five-game winning streak. The Seahawks are now 4-0 against them here under Chuck Knox, having forced, or received the benefit of 22 Raider turnovers.

It was the Raiders’ worst loss since the Chargers drubbed them 55-21, in 1981 when they were still in Oakland. They accomplished it while outgaining the Seahawks, which they’ve done in three of the four losses. Despite the loss, the Raiders remain in a first place tie with Denver in the AFC West. Both clubs have 6-3 records.

It’s not easy, losing by 30 when you’re moving the ball better than they are, but the Raiders managed.

At one point, the Seahawks had a total of five first downs and led, 19-0.

The Seahawks had the ball for 2:39 of the second period, and scored 23 points.

With 5:14 left in the third period, the Raiders were winning the battle for time of possession--27:11 to 12:35--but losing, 26-3.

The Raiders came into the game No. 4 in the NFL in total defense, giving up 281 yards a game. They held the Seahawks to 234. The Seahawks got another 180 through interceptions and the blocked field goal.

Raider reaction ran the gamut from the matter-of fact:

Wilson: “They were dropping back into zones and we were trying to hit some inside. One just totally slipped out of my hand. . . . We didn’t want to have turnovers. We didn’t try to be conservative. We came in here trying to go after them. It just didn’t work out that way.”

To the dramatic:

Lester Hayes: “We can’t beat these guys here. They could give us an all-star team and we couldn’t beat them. It’s a Seahawk-ism. The silver and black have very, very great difficulty functioning perfectly on AstroTurf. . . . This is the only place where the 45-man unit has some doubt. There’ll be doubt if we play here ‘til 1990. So be it.”

To a perspective closer to home:

Matt Millen: “This was the week. Everybody was starting to say, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good.’ Unfortunately when that happens, you either stand on your own two feet or you stick your foot in your mouth.”

Anger also entered in. Hayes was called for roughing punter Dave Finzer, whereupon he got close enough to referee Chuck Heberling, who was announcing the foul, to get a comment in on Heberling’s live microphone. Whereupon Heberling hit him with another 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The other cornerback, Mike Haynes, was beaten by Darryl Turner for a 38-yard touchdown pass despite getting both hands on the ball and deflecting it into the air, after which Turner out-wrestled him for it.

Haynes, the most urbane of players, then proceeded to twirl Turner up a Kingdome hallway at the back of the end zone.

“You didn’t see that, did you?” Haynes asked, grinning. “I hope Rozelle didn’t. There was a camera in the way, I think.

“I was upset. . . . I lost it. That’s the first time I’ve ever lost it. I’m just not used to our team being handled they way we were.”

How were they handled?

Count the ways.

On the Raiders’ first possession, Wilson came to the line amid the usual Kingdome din and backed away, looking for help from the referee. This was the way he’d done it in Cleveland, the way they’d practiced it with the loudspeakers last week in El Segundo.

Heberling hit him with a delay-of-game penalty.

Wilson: “He (Heberling) said I had to call time out. I don’t know what that means. It seems to me if I call time out, that’s one of our three. I was looking right at him. He knew I was looking at him. He knew what was going on.”

Wilson walked up to the line and got off a running play, Marcus Allen for one yard. Then he tried a long pass for Jessie Hester that came down, instead, to Seahawk safety John Harris. The Raider defense got the ball back, so this one cost them nothing.

Late in the first quarter, though, the Seahawks marched 63 yards for a Norm Johnson field goal. Aside from this drive, they gained 50 yards in the first half.

The Raiders went nowhere in their next possession. Ray Guy, tied for the AFC lead in net punting average, got off a low 34-yarder that the Seattle up man, Kenny Easley, returned 25 yards to the Raider 27. David Krieg then got Curt Warner isolated on linebacker Brad Van Pelt and hit him with a 27-yard scoring pass. Johnson’s kick was blocked and the Seahawks led, 9-0.

The Raiders held the ball for two plays, the second of which was a Wilson pass that linebacker Keith Butler intercepted and returned 31 yards to the Raider 13. After three incomplete passes, Johnson kicked a field goal and it was 12-0.

The Raiders embarked on a 48-yard march that died at the Seattle 32. Chris Bahr tried a 49-yard field goal, but Seattle cornerback Terry Taylor buzzed in from the outside and stuck his face right into it. Jackson fell to the field and stayed there for two minutes. The ball bounced once and was fielded neatly by wide receiver Byron Walker, who kicked in his afterburner and zoomed 56 yards into the end zone. Johnson’s kick made it 19-0.

The Raiders avoided further trouble until the closing moments of the half when they unleashed their two-minute offense. At the Seattle 40, Wilson aimed a pass for Dokie Williams but hit Taylor, the Seahawk, instead. Taylor fled 75 yards up the sideline for a touchdown and it was about to be 26-0.

Nothing highly significant happened after that, although minor skirmishes were plentiful.

Howie Long had a first-half discussion with another defensive end, Seattle’s Jacob Green, who came out onto the field while the Seahawks had the ball.

“He was just trying to be bad,” Long said. “I just asked him if he wanted a piece of me.”

Long had an animated talk in the second half with linebacker Michael Jackson, the star of the Seahawks’ music video. Jackson kept pointing to the scoreboard.

Long: “If I was winning, 33-3, I’d point to the scoreboard, too.”

Wilson was forced out of the game briefly in the third period, fumbling on a scramble and recovering it seven yards downfield while a Seahawk leveled him. Marcus Allen took another shot on his aching right shoulder. Tom Flores pulled them early in the fourth quarter and let Rusty Hilger and Kenny King finish.

“Well,” said Flores later to a crowd of writers in a Kingdome hall, “I don’t have any excuses. We got beat in every phase of the game.”

Had the Seahawks been dazzling them with pass coverages?

Flores: “The coverages weren’t anything we didn’t anticipate. It’s up to the quarterback and the receivers to read the coverages. A couple got away from Marc, I think. It’s hard to tell. Sometimes it’s a good play by the defense. Sometimes it’s a poor pass. Today, we had the ball batted up in the air and it comes down in their hands for a touchdown. Today just wasn’t our day.”