Oh, Brother, Matt Bahr Too Much for Raiders : His Sixth Field Goal Wins for Browns; Danielson Breaks Ankle

A star was born, or perhaps it was saved Thursday night. Rod Barksdale, the young wide receiver who was thought to be running fifth in the race for the four Raider spots, scored on a 71-yard pass play and caught two other passes for 32 and 29 yards. And that was just in the first half.

Then the Raiders, faced with a winning exhibition season after three straight 1-3 records, preserved tradition the hard way.

Their reserves lost a 22-9 halftime lead and fell to the Cleveland Browns, 25-22, on Matt Bahr’s sixth field goal of the night, a 34-yarder with five seconds left before perhaps 20,000 of the 48,626 fans who had once been present in the Coliseum.

The winning score was set up by reserve cornerback Mark Harper’s interception of a Rusty Hilger pass out of the end zone with 56 seconds left.

“Temporary insanity,” Hilger said. “Comes from an old war injury.”

Harper intercepted at the Raider 30 and returned it 10 yards. The Browns ran one play and then sent in Bahr.

The Raiders thus finished their exhibition season 2-2. The Browns went 4-0.

It was an exhibition like all exhibitions, but worse. The Browns put on a first period that could provide 50% of the footage for this season’s Football Follies, including as it did:

--Six penalties in their first 10 offensive plays, including four on left tackle Ricky Bolden. Once the Browns incurred penalties on three straight plays. On one of those, they got two penalties on the same play.

--A defensive penalty a few moments later, wiping out Tom Cousineau’s interception of a Marc Wilson pass into the end zone.

--Herman Fontenot’s fumble of a kickoff.

It was also an expensive one. Reserve Brown quarterback Gary Danielson suffered a broken left ankle while being sacked by Sean Jones and will be lost for at least 10 weeks.

Barksdale was taken to the dressing room by golf cart after he was hurt while blocking for a second-half kickoff. His injury, however, was diagnosed as a sprained ankle.

And Raider quarterback Marc Wilson sprained his right wrist, presumably on his last play--the 71-yarder to Barksdale. Wilson left the game in the second period.

The game started, prophetically enough, with a penalty. The Raiders’ Chris Bahr, Matt’s brother, kicked out of bounds.

On the first play from scrimmage, Sean Jones went offside. After that, the Raiders stepped back and let the Browns self-destruct.

Bolden then embarked on his night to remember, beginning festivities by holding Jones. That set the Browns back to their 12, from where they ran three more plays, gained four yards and punted.

Then things got ugly. The next Brown series went:

First and 10--Bolden holds.

First and 20--Bernie Kosar hits Earnest Byner for 10.

Second and 10--Kosar hits tight end Ozzie Newsome, but it’s wiped out by pass interference on Newsome and holding on Bolden.

Second and 20--Holding on George Lilja.

Second and 25--Guess who false starts? Right, Ricky Bolden.

With third and 27 at their 3, the Browns then ran two running plays, presumably just because they thought they could get those off.

By this time, the Raiders were leading by a scant 3-0 and the Browns got to work on their defensive penalties. With the Raiders at the Cleveland 17, Wilson was intercepted in the end zone by Cousineau. This one was called back by a holding on linebacker Anthony Griggs. At least they couldn’t pin this one on Bolden.

So Chris Bahr got a chance to kick his second field goal of the night, after which the Raiders led, 6-0.

Having tired of penalties, the Browns started on fumbles. The Raiders’ Bahr kicked off, and Fontenot coughed it up at the Brown 20.

Five plays and the Raiders were in the end zone. Marcus Allen went the last five, tearing through strong safety Chris Rockins, the replacement for the late Don Rogers, at the one and putting the Raiders ahead, 12-0.

After that, the Raiders started playing long ball. On their next possession, Wilson took them 72 yards in two plays.

The first was a one-yard run. The second was the 71-yarder to Barksdale, who beat a Brown reserve corner, Mark Harper, caught Wilson’s pass at the 27 and whooshed on into the end zone.

By now, the Raider lead was 19-3. Wilson retired with his sprained wrist, but Jim Plunkett came in to get them one more first-half score--Chris Bahr’s third field goal, set up by two more long strikes to Barksdale, these worth 32 and 29 yards. By the half, Barksdale was up to 132 yards in receptions and the Raiders were up, 22-9.

Raider Notes

In all, the Bahr brothers kicked nine field goals without missing. The Browns’ Matt was good from 44, 48, 46, 39, 29 and 34 yards. The Raiders’ Chris hit from 42, 32 and 34 yards. . . . Chris, whose first exhibition field goal try was a miss from 21 yards at San Francisco, went 5 for 6 after that, the lone miss being a 45-yarder that the Dallas Cowboys blocked. . . . The other half of the Raiders kicking game is still struggling. Ray Guy, coming off last season in which he led the AFC in net average, started the night with a gross average of 37.4 and got off several more un-Ray Guy type punts. He also failed to get one attempt off, fumbling a snap and turning the ball over at the Raider 21. . . . Navy Ens. Napoleon McCallum carried five times from scrimmage for 10 yards, as well as doing punt-return duty for the Raiders.

NO-HOLDS BAHRED The Brothers Bahr, Matt (Browns) and Chris (Raiders), were 9 for 9 in field goals in Thursday night’s exhibition game. Here’s the breakdown.

MATT BAHR (6 FGs)

No Dis. Qtr Time Score 1 44 2nd 3:22 Raiders 12, Browns 3 2 48 2nd 11:32 Raiders 19, Browns 6 3 46 2nd 15:00 Raiders 22, Browns 9 4 39 4th 1:40 Raiders 22, Browns 19 5 29 4th 10:11 Raiders 22, Browns 22 6 34 4th 14:55 Browns 25, Raiders 22

CHRIS BAHR (3 FGs)

No Dis. Qtr Time Score 1 42 1st 5:46 Raiders 3, Browns 0 2 32 1st 13:09 Raiders 6, Browns 0 3 34 2nd 13:59 Raiders 22, Browns 6