They’re Running Short on Points, Time

Somehow, it has come to this: While the undefeated Los Angeles football team with the healthy quarterback goes out and hocks a valuable asset and assorted future holdings for still another quarterback, the winless Los Angeles football team with the damaged quarterback and the 38-year-old quarterback goes out and does nothing.

Literally, nothing. Not even score a touchdown. Because what with Sunday’s 14-9 loss to the visiting New York Giants, the oh-no-we-got-no-O Raiders have gone 136 minutes 20 seconds without a touchdown, dating to the third quarter of their opener at Denver.

Imagine that. More than 2 hours of playing time, without once crossing the goal line. More than nine full periods. The Raiders!

Imagine a Raider party of bygone days going so long without a touchdown. It is not unlike imagining Ronald Reagan going 136 minutes without saying, “Well.” For this, remember, was once the outfit of Lamonica and Stabler and Van Eeghen and Biletnikoff and Branch, men who sniffed their way to the end zone like bloodhounds.

Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end. A Raider team without an offense? Inconceivable. Even when the passing weapons were jammed, there was always Marcus Allen, advancing on foot. One way or another, the Raiders have always known how to move the ball.

Maybe that is the cause of their misery. Maybe these guys had gotten so accustomed to going forward, to relying on one man, Allen, or on tradition to save the day, that they did not sufficiently prepare themselves for that day when good things come to an end.

“We are the Raiders now,” said Howie Long, the colossus of the Coliseum, after Sunday’s aggravating setback. “We can’t be living off the Raiders of the past.”

Since football is a funny game with a funny ball, all things are possible, including recovery from terrible starts. But time is slipping away, and morale might be close behind.

This was, after all, a team that had great expectations. “If you had told me back in July we’d be 0-3, I’d have told you you were crazy,” tight end Todd Christensen said, shaking his head. “These things happen. They just don’t usually happen to us.”

Sure, the first three opponents were tough. Sure, the Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins and New York Giants could beat anybody.

“But we’ve always had tough schedules before,” offensive tackle Bruce Davis said. “That’s no excuse.”

Now in his eighth season, all with the Raiders, Davis does not know for sure how to deal with disappointment of this extent. “You’re almost numb, you know, because you know you’re out there trying, you know the effort is there, you know the talent is there . . . “ he said. “Why we haven’t found a way to win, I just don’t know.”

This could be desperation time. It is obvious to anybody who can read an NFL schedule that there are 13 weeks left to play, but it is going to take at least three of those weeks just to make the Raider record break even. There also is the matter of how badly Marcus Franchise is injured, as well as our old favorite Hollywood quiz show: Name That Quarterback.

The Rams, bless them, gave up a lot--too much, probably--to help their stupefyingly dull offense. At least no one can accuse them again of not trying. To sacrifice a player of offensive lineman Kent Hill’s quality and to bump the kitty with a bunch of precious draft choices, the Rams risked a lot, including the wrath of Eric Dickerson, to improve themselves at quarterback.

Why were the Raiders not as willing as the Rams to go after Jim Everett, a quarterback they liked? Because the price was so high. One report out of Houston claimed that in return for the rights to Everett, the Oilers demanded Howie Long. While they were at it, they might as well have asked for Magic Mountain, Magic Johnson and Michael Jackson.

So, you wonder, how else could the Raiders have helped themselves? Well, to be 0-3 or not be 0-3, that is, indeed, the question. Al Davis will be searching for answers. Tom Flores will be searching for answers. Coliseum ticket-holders who were convinced the Raiders would be awesome this season will be arguing among themselves, too, wondering if 70,000 people can be wrong.

They have not been big fans of Wilson at quarterback, and have seemed to prefer the possibilities of Rusty Hilger, who rarely plays, or Plunkett, who hadn’t played a down in a year. When an injury to Wilson in the Washington game forced the issue, what it left the Raiders for their home opener was not much: Just Rusty and Rustier.

Plunkett, though older than some of the stadium pillars, was hardly the whole problem Sunday. He passed accurately, was not intercepted and showed guts hurtling his nearly-Jack Benny’s-age body a few extra yards for a needed first down. “I thought Jim Plunkett played courageously,” Bruce Davis said.

But with the game on the line, when nothing but a bomb would do, Plunkett was out there flipping passes that died like badminton birdies. The Raiders needed a touchdown to win, but without Marcus Allen, there was not much chance of that. Even with him, the offense was having trouble.

You do not necessarily need a lot of touchdowns to win. While one New York team was winning by five points Sunday with only 14 of their own, the other New York team scored 51 and nearly lost. The Raiders have the skill and the will. They just cannot seem to find the way.

“We’ve got to find a way to win. We’ve got to find a way to get into the end zone. We’ve got to find a way to play better football,” Flores said, his needle stuck.

They better find something, and fast. Otherwise, this team is going to go through the rest of 1986 as Raiders of the Lost Cause.