Raiders’ Flores Cannot Find Anything Positive to Say About 33-3 Loss

This being the black and silver, Raider Coach Tom Flores reassessed Sunday’s black day in the Kingdome, looking for a silver lining and found . . .

Nothing.

“Sometimes you kinda like to think something good comes out of a loss,” Flores said Monday, fresh from the agony of watching the game film of the 33-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. “But it doesn’t. Believe me, it doesn’t. I don’t know who it was that made that statement.”

The Raiders had won five games with Marc Wilson at quarterback and were trumpeting their newly rediscovered faith in him. Wilson had just been named the AFC’s player of the month.

Sunday, in his first loss of the season, Wilson threw four interceptions. None required a great play by a defender. Once more, teammates were heard muttering darkly, even without being asked their opinion of his performance.

Flores: “One of the interceptions kind of slipped out of Marc’s hand (the last one, a deep pass that Seattle cornerback Dave Brown intercepted).

“I’m not going to say who’s fault it was, or who’s fault it wasn’t. One was against a zone. He felt he could get it in there. That was the one the linebacker intercepted (Keith Butler, who returned it 31 yards to the Raider 13). I think nobody feels worse than a quarterback about interceptions.”

This may have been the first indication of the Raiders’ intention to return to Raider football. They had been using conservative game plans, archconservative for them. In Cleveland, they ran on several third and longs, trying to avoid dangling Wilson, then coming off his shoulder separation, before the Browns’ rush.

In the Kingdome, where the Seahawks have been making a living for three seasons on their turnovers, the Raiders showed a willingness to open up. On their second play, Wilson threw long for Jessie Hester, who was being double-covered. The ball hung up and Seahawk free safety John Harris intercepted.

Flores: “We called the play and Marc saw something, so he went for it. That’s what our quarterbacks are taught to do. If it’s there, take a shot. If it’s not there, come underneath.”

The other Raider problem was the field-goal try that Seattle’s Terry Taylor blocked and Byron Walker returned 56 yards for a touchdown.

Flores: “He came off the corner. He came quick off the corner, and we didn’t get a piece of him. Matt (Millen, blocking on the right end) has to pivot and get a piece of both of them. He took the inside guy but before he stepped back, Taylor was by him.”

Raider Notes

After the game, Matt Millen suggested that some Raiders may have been getting too happy about recent successes. Tom Flores, on the same subject: “You have to have some humility. You can get a little too big sometimes and think you’re unbeatable. You think because things are going well, it’s automatic. Nothing’s automatic. I think we proved that yesterday. We had been playing well, we’d won five in a row. Seattle had been having trouble, they’d lost two in a row. And you saw what happened.” . . . Some of the most exuberant Raiders were defensive players, though, and they were as good as ever. The Raider defense started the day No. 1 in the NFL in opponents’ yards per rush, 3.2, held Curt Warner to 2.2 and the Seahawks overall to 2.8. It was No. 1 in opponents’ completion average, 47.5%, and held David Krieg to 42.9%. It was No. 4 in yards allowed, 281, and held the Seahawks to 234.