At Long Last, Raiders Crack Bengal Defense

In another triumph for the New Raider Way, the Silver and Black blanked the explosive Cincinnati offense at the Coliseum Sunday and almost got blanked by the (choose your own adjective--excellent? exploding?) Bengal defense.

The game was tied at two field goals apiece until Marc Wilson threw an seven-yard pass to Marcus Allen with 2:50 left for the game’s only touchdown, giving the Raiders a 13-6 victory, ending their losing streak at two games, keeping them one game off the AFC West lead.

Half of the Raider front office was muttering about lack of production, but the uniformed personnel, known for its own forceful opinions, took it better.

“I don’t care what it looked like, it was a big win.” Howie Long said. “After last week, you want to talk about mass depression? That was like being beaten with a stick.”

With touchdowns on the scarce side, the game was highlighted by other things, such as:

--The Bengals grounding Air Marcus, knocking down two of Allen’s patented leaps over the center of the line at the Cincinnati one, foiling a Raider drive.

--The Bengals calling their whole team over to the sideline for timeout consultations, with several Raiders in hot pursuit, trying to listen in. The Raiders suggested later that the whole thing was bush league.

“Shame on Coach (Sam) Wyche,” said Lester Hayes, who trailed after the Bengals, along with Rod Martin and Mike Haynes.

“For a man who was an ex-coach under the genius of Northern California, Coach Bill Walsh, I thought that was a sandlot thing. It was a distinctly unexpected move, very Cracker Jack-boxish. That’s the kind of thing they do at the institutions of higher learning.”

--And the Raiders coming within a Stacey Toran fingertip of getting hit for a surprise touchdown for the second week in a row.

In San Diego, the Raider coaches didn’t get their defensive strategy into the game on time, leaving Lionel James uncovered, after which Dan Fouts threw him the football. Sunday the Raider secondary was milling around when Boomer Esiason hurried his team to the line and noted a running back named Stanford Jennings, similarly uncovered.

Boomer floated a pass toward Jennings. Toran recovered in time to tip it away at the goal line.

Said Toran: “We were kind of mixed up. Vann (McElroy) had just been injured and we were all excited. They had four people in the backfield and they snuck a running back out to the left.

“I figured I was in big trouble. I looked over and saw him start to throw. I was just hoping to make it over before he made the end zone. I think he floated it because he figured he was wide open. If he’d zipped it in, it would have been automatic.”

That turned out to be the Bengals’ best shot at the Raider defense, regrouped after surrendering 593 yards at San Diego, which dropped them from No. 5 in the NFL to No. 11 in a day.

Sunday they held the Bengals, the NFL’s highest scoring team, to no touchdowns, 94 yards rushing and 240 total. Esiason, the NFL’s second-ranked quarterback, who had completed 60% of his passes, was 14 for 31.

The other matchup was equally intriguing. The Bengals have a defensive unit loaded with former No. 1 picks, but they gave up an average of 34 points to their first seven opponents, before rallying against the Bills, Browns and Steelers.

Sunday the Bengals kept it going. Wilson did drive the Raiders 79 yards to the Cincinnati one in the second period, but there, on third down, the Bengals repulsed Allen.

Allen went airborne and was batted down. Since he’d scored most of his eight rushing touchdowns just that way, without ever having been denied, the Raiders wound him up and sent him back down the runway.

Allen took off at the three, but so did several Bengals from their side of the line. Allen and linebacker Reggie Williams collided above the goal line and fell to earth short of the stripe. Score one for Air Reggie.

“It’s no secret the way we’re going to go,” Wilson said. “They were lining up two-three linebackers way deep in the end zone and when we’d run the play, they’d come running.

“If they can stop it, great. It’s still probably the hardest play to defense, if you have a guy who can jump. If they stop it, fine, they deserved to stop it. But I don’t think we’re going to stop running it. Denver will have to stop it next week.”

The Bengals got four first downs on their first possession of the game, no more in the half and had a total of six in the third period when Esiason marched them 61 yards for a tying field goal early in the third period.

He did it with some Boomer magic. On a third-and-10 at the Cincinnati 44, he sidestepped a Howie Long rush, rolled to his left with the ground shaking under the weight of pursuing Raiders--and hit Cris Collinsworth for 15 yards.

Moments later, with a third-and-eight, he stepped away from a Greg Townsend rush, rolled left once more with Sean Jones in pursuit--and hit Steve Kreider for 19.

Hayes, asked who Esiason is the second coming of: “He reminds me so much of Francis Tarkenton, but in a king-size version.”

If Boomer was hot, and he was, the Raiders cooled him off by jumping on top of him. The next time the Bengals got the ball, he marched them to midfield, but from there, Bill Pickel sacked him twice in a row.

Midway through the fourth period, the Raiders started a drive from their 27. With third-and-three at the 34, Allen got 17 yards around left end.

With fourth-and-two at the Bengal 31--Allen having just been thrown back yet again--Tom Flores sent in a play-action pass, with Wilson faking a handoff to Frank Hawkins and looking for Allen coming out of the backfield. When Wilson looked, he saw Allen wide open and hit him for 18 yards.

Three plays later, on third-and-four, the Raiders sent Hawkins in motion to the right. A Bengal linebacker picked him up. No one picked up Allen who fanned out of the backfield behind him, and Wilson hit Allen again.

That was how the Raiders spelled relief, N-A-R-R-O-W V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.

What the heck, at least none of them will get cocky.

Raider Notes Chris Bahr, who’d been in a slump, kicked field goals of 38 and 20 yards in the first half. Center Dave Dalby made it 200 straight starts, the 13th NFL player to appear in that many games. . . . Free safety Vann McElroy made a brief appearance but re-pulled a hamstring. Trainer George Anderson: “Any time you have one of those, it’s bad enough.” Strong safety Mike Davis is also out, having just undergone arthroscopic knee surgery. Stacey Toran played strong safety, and the recently re-acquired Odis McKinney took McElroy’s place.