Raiders Win It In an Instant, 24-17 : Officials’ Failure to Communicate Helps to Defeat Chiefs

The boys in the replay booth botched another one here Sunday. Since this was a Raider game and these were National Football League officials, this could only mean one thing, right?

Wrong. The Raiders were the beneficiaries. The officials tried to strike down Dokie Williams’ touchdown catch but couldn’t make themselves understood on the field so it stood. Instead of trailing the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-0, the Raiders were down, 17-7.

They then proceeded to score all the points in the second half and beat the Chiefs, 24-17, with a fine relief performance by Jim Plunkett, who completed 8 of 10 passes, including one for the game-winning touchdown to Jessie Hester. Instead of being 1-4, the Raiders are 2-3.

“My buddy, the instant replay guy,” said Williams, laughing.

It wasn’t a beeper that failed this time or anything mechanical. This one was just good old-fashioned pilot error. The nation is lucky these guys are only running football games and not anything more important.

With a first down at the Chiefs’ 12 late in the second period, Marc Wilson threw a looping pass to Williams in the corner of the end zone. The officials called touchdown.

The replay clearly showed Williams getting one foot down in bounds as cornerback Albert Lewis pushed him out. The official in the booth, Jack Reader, the NFL’s assistant supervisor of officials, could have ruled that Lewis’ contact was good for getting the second foot down.

Instead, he decided it was incomplete, and tried to so inform umpire John Keck, the walkie-talkie man on the field.

The rest reads like a Bob Newhart script.

“Apparently the message was ‘pass incomplete’ and I heard ‘pass is complete,’ ” Keck said.

Reader: “It wasn’t a failure to communicate. I said it was incomplete and he (Keck) thought that I said complete. I looked at the replay again just to make sure and then I hear the whistle and looked up and tried to get him. But the play was over and there was nothing I could do.”

“Hey, listen,” said Tom Flores, hearing about it for the first time after the game, “24-17, that’s the score.”

This was about the first thing that had gone right for the Raiders, who went into the game with an almost-rookie backfield of tailback Napoleon McCallum and second-year fullback Steve Strachan. The special teams lineup was the same, but it was having some trouble, too, in front of an Arrowhead Stadium crowd of 74,430.

Opening kick--Stefon Adams fumbles but the referee rules that the ball came out when he hit the ground.

First possession--Punter Ray Guy, who has struggled all season, drops a nearly perfect snap and is hauled down at the Raider 12. The Chiefs take over. The Raiders hold but Nick Lowery kicks a 24-yard field goal.

Second possession--Marc Wilson fumbles the snap. The Chiefs recover at their 34. Four plays later, Boyce Green goes 18 yards around left end for a touchdown and the Chiefs lead, 10-0.

Third possession--Goes nowhere. Guy gets off a 29-yard punt--barely, over the rush of Lewis. The Chiefs take over at their 33 and drive for a touchdown, helped by an 18-yard pass interference call against Stacey Toran, and a third and 16 pass interference against Sam Seale that puts the ball at the Raider one. There, Todd Blackledge fakes into the line and hits Paul Coffman in the end zone. Lowery’s kick makes it 17-0.

Of course, the Raiders have a long history of comebacks and the Chiefs have a long history of coughing up leads over the Raiders. So was Flores worried?

“I’m always worried,” he said. “When it was 17-zip, I was really worried.”

He had a lot to worry about. Three Raiders already had dropped passes. The next possession ended with Wilson throwing a floater over the middle that safety Sherman Cocroft intercepted without difficulty.

Then everything turned around. On the first Chief play, Howie Long and Bill Pickel sacked Blackledge. On the second, they drew another bead on him but Blackledge dumped it to one of his backs, Green.

Green was starting to cut back across the field when Greg Townsend crunched him from behind. The ball flew out and Jerry Robinson recovered at the Chief 32. Six plays later, Williams was the beneficiary of the instant replay crew’s failure to communicate.

The Chiefs marched to the Raider 17 in the closing seconds of the half, helped by a number of Raider penalties. Included was a donnybrook, Townsend vs. Brad Budde with several others joining in. Townsend tore Mark Adickes’ helmet off but Long came out of it with the only penalty, for 15 yards, moving the ball to the Raider 38.

On the next play, the Chiefs’ Irv Eatman made a late hit and was penalized. Vann McElroy, who had been hit and had punched back, was ejected from the game.

And then, with the Chiefs in cinch field goal range for Lowery, Blackledge threw another of those safeties’ delights, a high pop fly that Adams intercepted in the end zone. The Raiders were out of the first half trailing only 17-7.

“At the half, I said to the team, ‘Don’t lose it,’ ” Flores said. “It was a very physical game, very emotional.”

Townsend: “They got a little shaky. They tried to retaliate for the fight on that Eatman play. I think they went into their dressing room and said, ‘We’re not going to get drawn into their game.’ They came out and tried to play conservative. We came out and played Raider football.”

In the second half, the Raiders allowed the Chiefs 61 yards. Now all they had to do was catch up.

That didn’t take long, either. The first Raider possession was a 43-yard drive, ending on McCallum’s first NFL touchdown, a 12-yard run up the middle on a draw play. Bahr’s kick made it 17-14.

The second Raider possession put them ahead. This one went 54 yards, but it hadn’t gone anywhere when Chief linebacker Fred Cofield blasted Wilson on an incomplete pass. Wilson got up cradling his already-bruised-and-taped right thumb, and then sank to the turf.

In came Plunkett, with only a few throws to warm up--”To an equipment guy,” he said, smiling.

His first call was a run. That left third and four. Then he hit Todd Christensen on a long sideline pattern for 18 yards. Christensen made a sliding catch at the sideline. After a long review, the replay official ruled the replays inconclusive and let the play stand.

“That was a tough pass to throw,” Plunkett said. “I didn’t have any time and I just had to guess where Todd was going to be. It wasn’t exactly a picture perfect pass.”

Someone asked Christensen what turned this game around.

“What do you want me to say?” he answered. “My catch? OK.

“Jim and I have a unique relationship, to say the least. It’s very interesting. We don’t hang out much together. Then we go out there and he finds me.

“That was a heck of a throw. It was a pretty good catch, too, but it was a heck of a throw.”

Two plays later, Plunkett made another fine throw, hitting Hester for 18 yards and the touchdown. Hester juggled the ball but grabbed it and the Raiders had the lead.

Midway through the fourth period, Plunkett marched the Raiders to the Kansas City two in a drive that that consumed 5:36. Chris Bahr kicked the 19-yarder and it was 24-17.

By then Blackledge had been given the afternoon off and Bill Kenney was making his first appearance of the season. The Raiders had a kid secondary, too, with Adams subbing for McElroy, Sam Seale in for an injured Mike Haynes and Toran, a first-year starter at strong safety. That left Lester Hayes with no one his own age to talk to, but they kept the Chiefs shut down.

The last Chief drive netted 37 of their 61 second-half yards but it got no closer than the Raider 41, where Kenney threw four incomplete passes.

The Raiders had survived to fight another day, perhaps with older troops. Next week they get the Seattle Seahawks in the Coliseum.

“If the magic man can make it back I like our chances,” Christensen said.

On Sunday, with Marcus Allen on the sidelines, they needed all the magic they could get elsewhere. Surprise, someone loves them.

Raider Notes

Frank Hawkins, who has a right knee injury, was not used at fullback although he did appear on special teams. . . . Chris Bahr is 9 for 9 on field goals this season and has kicked 12 in a row overall. Mark Moseley has the NFL record, 17. . . . NBC’s Bob Trumpy on a the replay snafu: “My son is 13 years old and he can reach anyone in the world. I say, put a teen-ager up there.” . . . Mike Haynes suffered a calf pull in the first half and was in and out after that. Tackle Henry Lawrence suffered an injury to an arch and was replaced by Shelby Jordan.