Elway’s Fine Effort Leaves Him 0 for Coliseum

Battling the flu for most of the week, John Elway enjoyed an afternoon of the type that can get you well Sunday.

The Denver quarterback completed 19 of 32 passes for 164 yards. He threw three touchdowns and no interceptions. He moved in and out of the pocket to escape the Raiders’ pass rush and eventually scrambled twice, gaining 25 yards and two first downs.

Elway and his statistics were healthy enough, but it was an ill ending for the Broncos.

They lost in overtime, 31-28, and are now tied with the Raiders for the AFC’s Western Division lead.

It was just about what Elway has come to expect at the Coliseum. His homecomings aren’t exactly cause for celebration.

As quarterback of the Stanford Cardinal and Denver Broncos, Elway is 0-4-1 in the Coliseum, the tie having come against USC by a 21-21 score in Elway’s freshman year, 1979.

In fact, since leaving Granada Hills High, Elway can’t find a Southern California field to his liking.

It’s as if he has an allergy to the Coliseum, Rose Bowl, Anaheim Stadium and San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium. He’s a combined 1-8-1, and even that doesn’t indicate the poor nature of Elway’s Southern California luck.

Last year, when it was the Broncos who won in overtime at the Coliseum, 22-19, the quarterback was Gary Kubiak. Elway was sidelined by a shoulder injury.

And Sunday, when visiting captain Elway got the opportunity to win the pivotal overtime coin toss, he even lost that.

Tails, Elway called. He had also called tails to open the game and lost that, too.

“I figured it wouldn’t come down heads twice in a row,” Elway said, proving he would be wise to avoid Nevada and Atlantic City when thinking about an offseason vacation.

It came down heads for a second time, and the Raiders needed only five plays to position Chris Bahr for the game-winning field goal.

A week earlier in Denver, Elway had lost a similar flip against the San Diego Chargers, but the Broncos won without running a play as Dennis Smith blocked a field goal and Louis Wright scooped it up, and ran 60 yards to the sudden-death touchdown.

Wright said he was nursing similar thoughts Sunday, but it didn’t happen.

In this case, Elway had a better grip on the laws of probability.

“Last week we won in overtime without having the football,” he said. “It was a big play, but you’d have to consider it something of a miracle. You can’t expect to win in overtime without the football. Naturally I wanted it. I was concerned as soon as I lost the flip.”

Considering his Southern California record, Elway’s concern may have started when he got on the plane for Los Angeles.

“No way,” he said, talking cordially with a group of reporters as he stood at his locker. “I never think about that (his local record) until someone brings it up. I mean, it’s something that can’t be explained. There’s no jinx. I’m not pressing here. I’ve won enough other places to know I can win here, too.

“I’m disappointed to lose again, but I thought we did everything we could possibly do offensively. We had moved the ball so well in the first half, I was confident we’d pull it out.”

All three of Elway’s touchdown passes came in the first half, when he accumulated 128 of his passing yards.

The Raiders tied it, 21-21, with their first possession of the second half, then successfully executed an onside kick that led to a 28-21 lead. The Broncos drove 56 yards to a tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter, but never seemed to regain their first-half continuity.

They had only five possessions in the second half and a total of 10 plays in the third quarter, two of them punts.

“It’s tough to develop any rhythm when you’re going on and off the field,” Elway said. “We had to punt on our first series (of the second half), then seemed to lose our momentum after the onside kick. It seemed like at one point I was standing on the sideline for 15 minutes. You have to give the Raiders credit. They did a great job of keeping us off the field.”

The Broncos had the ball at their 26 with 2:08 left in the fourth quarter but ultimately concluded their final possession by punting from the 25. It had been a disorganized series in which Elway was first forced to take a timeout when he couldn’t get his wide receivers properly deployed, then the Broncos were penalized for having 12 men on the field.

“We put in a lot of new formations and new plays,” Elway said. “Dan (coach Reeves) had a great game plan and did a great job of calling the plays, mixing things up against a team noted for its rush. We moved the pocket around, set up a lot of misdirection.

“It worked so well in the first half that I couldn’t believe it wouldn’t continue in the second, but we just didn’t have the ball enough. As for the confusion at the end, I’ll take the blame. We went to a two-minute drill instead of staying with the things that had been successful. The communication wasn’t good, and that’s the quarterback’s fault. Hopefully, we can learn from it.”

That’s where John Elway is, still learning, still improving, still closing in on his touted potential.

He left the Coliseum still looking for a win here, but he left the Raiders more than impressed. He left them winded from chasing his heels across the muddy terrain.

Said linebacker Matt Millen: “You spend all week studying films, preparing for guys to run certain routes, then all of a sudden he’s out of the pocket and there are no routes anymore. It’s inevitable somebody is going to get open.”

Put another way:

“I know he’s listed at 4.9,” defensive end Howie Long said, alluding to Elway’s speed for the 40 yard dash, “but when someone’s chasing him, he’s more like 4.5.”