Raiders Find (Painfully) There’s New Catch in Elway’s Routine

John Elway performed what would be a nice novelty act on another day and in another game. But against the Raiders Sunday, his touchdown catch turned out to be something more than a quarterback curiosity. It got the Broncos back into a game they eventually won.

This was one of the smaller amazements of the Denver Broncos’ 38-36 defeat of the Raiders. But a substantial one nonetheless.

Because, really, do quarterbacks make touchdown catches, drifting lazily out of the backfield to collect balloon balls in the end zone? Not ordinarily, of course. But then, Elway, the Denver Broncos’ quarterback, is certainly capable of doing the extraordinary.

“He can do it all,” said wide receiver Steve Watson, who himself caught a touchdown pass in the Broncos’ wild ride over the Raiders. “I imagine he’ll be returning kicks soon.”

As far as promotional angles go, there are easier ways to draw a crowd, especially in Mile High Stadium, where the 203 no-shows among the 75,695 were booed as lustily as the hated Raiders. You could just let Elway pass, for example.

Sunday, he completed 21 of 35 passes for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns in what was essentially a one-man offense. Confirmed Raider cornerback Lester Hayes, run ragged by Elway: “Take him out of their offense and then they’re an 8-8 team. They might be 7-9.”

But who can take Elway out of an offense? If not the Raiders, then who? The Raider defense had him in motion all afternoon. “Every time I looked back it seemed John was running,” Watson said. “He had a lot of heat, it seemed.”

Elway was, in fact, sacked a couple of times. But then there was his 35-yard scoring pass to Watson in the first possession. Elway, at that point, had already covered enough turf to make Fran Tarkenton green with envy.

“There isn’t much John can’t do,” Watson sighed.

Evidently, now that he has shown he can catch the ball. The Broncos had worked on that play all week, but, even so, Elway was to be the third choice of running back Steve Sewell, who got the shovel pass.

But when the Broncos tried it in the second quarter, trailing by 19-7, Sewell quickly gave Elway the look. “I had two other guys to look at,” said Sewell, who admitted he hadn’t thrown a ball since his Pop Warner days. “But like I told him, he sold the run, sold it real well. As soon as everybody flowed the other way, I went to John.”

Elway, after the shovel pass to Sewell, had kind of stopped in his tracks, as if he planned to take a breather, let someone else do the scrambling. “I just walked until the free safety passed me,” he said. “And then I turned on my semi-afterburner.”

Bronco Coach Dan Reeves, who otherwise respects Elway’s wheels, was glad Elway had no more than 25 yards to cover. “I felt if we didn’t give John too much territory he might be able to run it in,” he said.

And he did run it in, as casually as you please. Elway, who now has competition from Sewell the passer, has decided he wants to be competition for Watson the receiver. “You know,” said the former Stanford star out of Granada Hills, “quarterbacks are always throwing to each other, and I just hate catching the ball. But I kind of liked this.”

Elway did other equally spectacular things Sunday. After a controversial pass interference call put the Broncos on the Raiders’ one-yard line, Elway calmly stood in the pocket and stared down free safety Vann McElroy. It was one of those things where nobody blinked, so Elway waited for running Gene Lang to materialize in the end zone. Touchdown.

Possibly more critical was Elway’s 36-yard completion to Watson with two minutes left in the game. That pass was on third down, nine yards to go from the Bronco 22-yard line. Turning it over, even on a punt, would have given the Raiders enough time to come back yet again. “Perfect pass,” Watson said.

Hearing that Lester Hayes had also delivered some flattering comments, concerning especially a better touch on the ball, Elway agreed that he has improved. “The difference between this year’s opening game and last year’s is night and day,” he said, recalling a 20-16 loss to the Rams.

Elway, who somewhat overshadowed the other aspects of the Bronco offense--the team managed just 55 yards rushing--nevertheless insisted the Broncos’ offense had come farther than his own. “We’re doing a lot more things--different formations, you name it,” he said. “We’re already doing twice what we did last year.”

Watson, however, said Elway was reading defenses “faster than ever. Maybe it’s that he’s always been there and now he’s being surrounded with talent.”

Does that mean Elway can improve? That’s scary admitted Watson. “How do you improve on his nearly 4,000 yards (3,891) passing? What can he do next? I mean, he’s already caught as many touchdown passes as I have.”