Another Must-Win Game for Raiders Today : Allen Is Likely to Watch as L.A. Takes On Chiefs

The Chiefs’ hearts are overflowing, not to mention their storm drains. They’re 3-1. Despite a week of local flooding, Arrowhead Stadium is sold out, and guess which hated rival is limping into town today.

There you go, the Raiders, 1-3 and down to their last hope: A sweep of their remaining AFC West games, which would get them back atop their division standings. Forget the games at the Kingdome and Jack Murphy Stadium. If they don’t prevail today--and it’s rated an even game--the dream is dead.

And not only is the Silver and Black Attack in trouble, they’re running out of Silver and Black backs.

Marcus Allen, who didn’t suit up last week because of an ankle sprain, was downgraded to doubtful Friday and is expected to sit this one out. Fullback Frank Hawkins, who has a twisted right knee, is listed as probable but he didn’t practice last week, either.

After that, it’s two rookies, Napoleon McCallum and Vance Mueller as halfbacks. The fullbacks would be Steve Strachan, a second-year bomb squad player with seven carries and four yards to his credit as a pro, and former 49er tight end Earl Cooper, who was cut in camp, re-signed and then moved back to the position three days ago.

The unmoving object, the Raider offense, meets the irresistible force, the 46 defense:

In a development no Raider will mind, it’s not the Chicago Bears, just Buddy Ryan’s scheme that the Chiefs have installed. They’ll put six players on the line of scrimmage on passing downs with two linebackers behind them and blitz many, most or all of them.

The Raiders have been having big trouble blocking anyone’s blitzes. They have given up 19 quarterback sacks, second most in the NFL, including eight last week by, of all people, the Chargers.

In Washington, X-rays revealed that quarterback Marc Wilson suffered a separated shoulder and a bruised left hand. He sat out the Giant game, then banged his right thumb on a San Diego blitzer’s helmet last week, necessitating more X-rays.

The Raiders are either going to start picking up blitzers better, or Wilson will be glowing by the end of the season.

If the Chiefs aren’t the Bears, they are not without blue-chip players. Defensive end Mike Bell, lost to a drug bust, has been replaced by Pete Koch, another No. 1 draft pick. Koch, waived by the Bengals but playing well, was the 14th player taken in his draft. The other members of the front three, Art Still and Bill Maas, were the second and fifth players taken in theirs.

The Chiefs have a good secondary. They were weak at linebacker in recent years, but brought in a couple of rookie hitters from the boondocks. Dino Hackett, their No. 2 choice from Appalachian State, was given Gary Spani’s job on the first day of camp. Tim Cofield, a 6-2, 235-pound free agent with 4.6-second 40-yard dash speed from Elizabeth City State in North Carolina, won a job on the outside.

In the 46 defense, Cofield plays right end, Richard Dent’s position. He has 3 1/2 sacks, more than any Chief linebacker had all last season. He has attracted a lot of attention, at least from Cincinnati’s Boomer Esiason and Buffalo’s Jim Kelly. They complained heatedly about him.

Cofield knocked Kelly down three times in one eight-play stretch last week. On the first, Kelly complained to the referee. On the second, Kelly tried to fight Cofield, and the referee penalized Cofield for roughing the passer. On the third, Kelly had to leave the game.

Do the Chiefs intend to discipline Cofield?

Not on your quarterback’s life. They’d like to know if there are any more at home like him, though.

Today he is Bruce Davis’ problem.

Is the Raider offense going to have a long day with the Chief defense?

Maybe, but then there’s the other matchup: Todd Blackledge and Co. vs. the real Raiders.

All the quarterbacks from the famed Class of ’83 have made it, the dark-horses and the favorites--John Elway of Stanford, Tony Eason of Illinois, Jim Kelly of Miami, Ken O’Brien of UC Davis and Dan Marino of Pitt--with one exception.

It’s Blackledge of Penn State, the second quarterback taken. All the others got to play, but the Chiefs’ plan was for Blackledge to back up Bill Kenney for a season. Kenney then became the fifth quarterback to throw for 4,000 or more yards in one season and made the Pro Bowl, so they drafted a new plan.

That one was finally dumped last season when, after a 3-1 start during which the Raiders were the second victim in a 36-20 rout here, there followed seven losses, the Raiders starting that string with a 19-10 win at the Coliseum.

Cool Coach John Mackovic instituted a dress code on the road and took away team lunches at home. When the promising season ended at 6-10, genial owner Lamar Hunt promised that they would do better this season or he’d clean the whole house, personally.

Blackledge is now No. 1. He is completing 47% of his passes and getting booed.

“I have been booed some,” he acknowledged last week. “It’s certainly not pleasant. You want to be received well; you want to do well. I’ve received a lot of encouragement from my teammates. The only thing that matters is the fact we’re 3-1.”

Big, at 6-3 and 225, and talented, Blackledge owed his draft position as much to his reputation for leadership. He hadn’t shown it much, but last week at Buffalo he drove the Chiefs 72 yards for a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter. Then Nick Lowery’s field goal won it, 20-17.

The Chiefs hope that put Blackledge over the hump. Today, he’ll get the Raider test.

Raider Notes

Meet the best kicker in the game now, a top-percentage man with unreal range. Nick Lowery is the NFL’s No. 1-ranked field goal kicker of all time at 76.8%. For this season and last, he is 30 of 34, and that’s 88.2%. In last season’s game here, he kicked a 58-yard field goal on the last play of the first half, cutting a Raider lead to 14-9. The Chiefs scored the next 21 points and won laughing. . . . The Raiders brought Dokie Williams to last week’s press breakfast, where someone asked why the wide receivers were dropping so many passes. “That’s a good question,” Williams said. . . . Add woes: the Raiders, players and coaches, hate artificial turf so much that they rarely even practice on their synthetic field in El Segundo. They’ve lost four of their last five games on artificial turf over two seasons. Arrowhead has artificial turf. . . . This is the Chiefs’ first game sold out in time for local TV since 1979. Since their last playoff appearance in 1971, they have had five 3-1 starts. In each of those years, they lost the fifth game.