Raiders Will Try to Down New Air Coryell, Maybe for Last Time
In the skies above San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, they’re scrambling Air Coryell for another in its series of last stands. This time, it’s the invader of invaders, the Raiders, who can hasten Don Coryell’s last days of wearing Charger lightning bolts.
If the Raiders get what they’ve come for, the San Diego Chargers will be 4-6 and headed for Denver, where they could easily turn 4-7. Charger owner Alex Spanos has suggested that a minimum of 8-8 will do.
In San Diego, they’re training a new kiddie air corps, right in the middle of hostilities. A week after the Raiders put them to the torch, the Chargers and their 21 new players surprised the Broncos, 30-10. In San Diego, they’re just beginning to fight.
And they know what, or more precisely whom, they’re fighting for, too.
Charger guard Ed White said: “(Coryell) is one of the greatest offensive-minded coaches who’s ever been involved in football. I hope we all rally around him. He doesn’t deserve it (to be fired). He doesn’t deserve it at all.
“This team had a lot of misfortune. It hasn’t found a way to sign significant players (e.g. Fred Dean, John Jefferson, Gary Johnson, who left in salary disputes). This team’s going through a rebuilding program and it’s doing it in a big hurry. What we’ve done is pretty amazing. And I’m not saying this just because Don is the coach now.”
The young Charger defense held John Elway to 222 yards in 35 passes, sacked him four times and intercepted two of his throws. San Diego has already won two more AFC West games than it did last season, when the Chargers were a fast 0-8 in the division.
“As you all know, we’re used to scoring points and having to try to carry the load,” Charger receiver Wes Chandler said. “To have our defense start rising to the occasion now, rather than having the offense suck it up, it’s a good feeling.”
The Raiders have their own problems, coming off that 33-3 massacre at their personal Black Rock, the Seattle Kingdome.
Guess what that means?
“They’re going to be tough,” said Chandler, laughing. “They’re going to be seriously tough.”
Two weeks ago, the Raiders overran the Charger offensive line and sacked Dan Fouts, who’d been down only four times all season, four times in 17 plays. San Diego’s air force isn’t much good when the pilot is on the ground with some Raider on top of him.
The Chargers are still trying to figure out what happened. A physical mismatch? Blown assignments? An inability to figure out what was going on? Howie Long?
Bet on all of the above.
Coryell said: “We couldn’t block (Long). The Raider scheme, and it’s a very clever scheme, of course, is to try to move him around to where he can play on anybody he wants to play on.”
The new Raider scheme is the one they borrowed from the Bears. It’s an attacking 4-3 defense, with lots of people near the line of scrimmage and available to blitz.
Several teams have gone to similar schemes. Last week, 13 NFL runners, the most ever, gained 100 yards. There is a theory around that the defenses have caught up to the pass offenses and are forcing them downstairs.
The Chargers hope they’re prepared. One of the 100-yard rushers was their Gary Anderson, who got 116.
Long said: “I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Then I saw they ran the ball 40 times last week. If it was the San Diego we all know and love, it would have been a piece of cake.”
But the Chargers still have to prove that they can run against the Raiders. The Raiders have another scheme they use against two-tight end formations, like the Chargers’, in which Stacey Toran, a big safety, replaces Lester Hayes, who is more into pass coverage.
A year ago, the Raiders were embarrassed when Seattle’s Dan Doornink plodded for 129 yards against them in the playoffs. So far, no one has gotten as many as 70 yards against them. Even with the dome falling in on them in Seattle, they held Curt Warner to 51.
But the Chargers haven’t been knocking off 5,500 yards a season because they couldn’t adjust. Take to the air, junior birdmen.
Raider Notes The Raiders are 2 1/2-point favorites. . . . Kellen Winslow isn’t talking about having gone AWOL last Monday, but he did it after playing little and catching no passes against Denver. Wes Chandler said: “Maybe he’s discouraged about the length of time it’s taking him to come back (from knee surgery).” . . . Don Coryell said: “I think he was discouraged. But the main reason we played the other players was that he was hurt during the week. We didn’t have a chance to practice him. He’s a very proud person. We didn’t have a big discussion. He just apologized, gave his reasons, and it’s over.” . . . The Chargers maintain that Coryell approved the firing of defensive coordinator Tom Bass earlier this season, but Coryell, asked if he’d been in favor of keeping Bass, replied: “Yes, I was. He has been a longtime personal friend. He’s a very, very good coach.” . . . The Raiders are looking for a way to use linebacker Jerry Robinson, acquired earlier this season from the Philadelphia Eagles, but rookie Reggie McKenzie and the defense have been terrific. Said Tom Flores: “That’s the point. Who do you take out? You have to have a plan. I won’t tell you what the plan is, but Jerry fits into the plan.”