Raiders Can Put an End to Seahawks’ Season Today

Meanwhile, back in the Kingdome . . .

It’s last Sunday. The Seattle Seahawks are working the Cleveland Browns over, all the while keeping an eye on the scoreboard, to see how the beloved Raiders are doing at Denver.

Beloved Raiders?

Yep. Those swashbucklers they used to love to hate in Seattle have become, temporarily, an ally. The Seahawks need all the help they can get.

They need the Broncos to lose. Then they must beat the Raiders at Los Angeles. Then they have to come home and beat the Broncos, while the Raiders lose to the Rams. If all that happens, the Seahawks will have come from nowhere to win the title in the AFC West.

Sound impossible? Maybe, but it’s about the only way they’re going to get into the playoffs.

“It was kind of odd to hear people in the Kingdome cheering for the Raiders,” said the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Glenn Drosendahl. “It got pretty gloomy for a while when Denver was leading, 14-0.”

The Seahawks were in their locker room when they learned that the Raiders had won in overtime. There was great rejoicing.

The party’s over. The Seahawks’ mission is to win today.

If they do, they’ll be going home, the Raiders will be going to Anaheim and the impossible dream is going to look a lot more possible.

The Seahawks didn’t figure to be shopping for miracles. A year ago, they went 12-4 with Curt Warner hurt and no one gaining 400 yards, and then sent the Raiders home early.

Now, Warner is back, Seattle travel agents are holding blocks of hotel rooms in New Orleans, and the Seahawks are 8-6.

Who to blame? How about all those media people who hyped them into a Super Bowl hopeful?

Not really.

“As far as all the prognosticators leading us onto the field, I think our expectations were easily as high, if not higher than anybody writing about us,” Seahawk receiver Steve Largent said last week.

How about Dave Krieg, everyone’s favorite unknown from the former Milton College, who was labeled all kinds of an incompetent after going 11 for 30 in a Monday night game at San Francisco?

Not really.

Krieg has gone 45 for 64 in two games since. Seahawk Coach Chuck Knox did show an interest in free agent quarterbacks Warren Moon and Bobby Hebert, and Krieg does blow red-hot and ice-cold, but his 26 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions put him about where he was last season, when he went 32-24 and made the Pro Bowl.

They’ve got more problems than Krieg’s biorhythms.

Ground Chuck has run aground. Warner has 965 yards, but only a 3.7 average. He averaged 4.3 when he got 1,449 yards as a rookie. The Seahawk average is 3.5, second worst in the NFL.

They’ve given up 47 sacks, and there’s concern about their smallish offensive line. Guard Robert Pratt is perhaps optimistically listed at 6-4 and 250 pounds. The center, 255-pound Blair Bush, has been manhandled by some of the big new nose tackles like Joe Klecko and Michael Carter. The Raiders have one, too, Bill Pickel, who is 6-5, 260 and leads the team with 10 1/2 sacks.

Still, the Seahawks have been close. They were 4-2 when they lost at Denver, in overtime. Then they lost to the Jets in the Meadowlands, 17-14, after leading, 14-0. Norm Johnson, a 76% field goal kicker, missed from 36, 47 and 48 yards that day.

They were 6-4 when they played the Patriots at Foxboro, Mass. With the game tied, 3 minutes 21 seconds left and the Seahawks at the New England five, Krieg threw a pass that a Patriot lineman batted into the air. Safety Fred Marion intercepted it and ran 83 yards, setting up the winning touchdown.

Maybe the Seahawks have just lost the knack of sneaking up on opponents.

Maybe they were over-achievers who maxed out.

Said Knox: “I don’t know about that. We’ve got some pretty good football players. We’ve got Kenny Easley, who’s probably the best football player I’ve ever coached.

“We’re a good solid football team. We’re not a great football team. . . . Certainly to be 8-6, to be looking at a must-win situation, it has been a disappointment. There are a lot of reasons for it, but that’s a loser’s lament. You can cite injuries, you can cite this or that. The fact remains, we’re 8-6 and fighting for our lives.”

Of course, there’s the Raider perspective.

Would they mind putting the Seahawks, winners of five of the last seven meetings, out of their misery?

Not much, one guesses.

Raider Notes The Seahawks lead this series, 8-7. . . .Marcus Allen of the Raiders ran for 135 yards last week but fell to No. 2 in the NFL, 21 yards behind Gerald Riggs of Atlanta. Allen has a streak of seven 100-yard games. Walter Payton’s record string of nine ended Saturday as Chicago beat the New York Jets, 19-6. . . . The Seahawks are plus-6 in take-away, give-away, a long way from last season’s plus-24. They were minus-1 through eight games until they got to the Raiders, God’s gift to the turnover ratio. Marc Wilson threw four interceptions, one of which Terry Taylor returned 75 yards for a touchdown. Taylor also blocked a field goal try with his chin and Byron Walker returned it 56 yards for a touchdown. . . . Wilson is coming off first halves of 6 for 16, 5 for 17 and 4 for 11 against the Broncos, Falcons and Broncos. He followed with second halves of 10 for 18, 8 for 9 and 9 for 17. He threw eight interceptions in the three games and is up to 20. . . . Steve Largent has 71 receptions and an NFL-high 1,161 yards. Lester Hayes: “I’ve never sensed fear in Steve Largent. That’s baffling because I’m an ex-linebacker. I can sense fear in some pass receivers. He challenges me in the five-yard bump zone. I outweigh him by 25 pounds and he still challenges me.” . . . Largent: “I don’t know what he means by that. I don’t know what Lester means by a lot of what he says.”