Raiders Need Reinforcements, Get Them : Allen Returns, Townsend Reinstated for Key Game With Seattle at Coliseum

The boys with the beaks on their helmets are back in Tinseltown--or in English, the Seattle Seahawks are here to play the Raiders.

It’s the latest in the AFC West’s Territorial Imperative series, and carries an urgent message for the Raiders: Get ‘em while they’re here. You know what happens when you’re there.

Unlike the Raider-Bronco series, which has been swept for eight seasons--Raiders in ‘79, ‘80, ‘82, ’83 and ‘85, and Broncos in ‘78, ’81 and ‘84--this one tends to go to the home team. Since Chuck Knox arrived in Seattle--or put another way, since the Raiders started taking the Seahawks seriously--home teams have won 6 of 7 meetings.

The Seahawks haven’t won at the Coliseum since 1983. They didn’t even score a touchdown here last season, losing, 13-3.

The Raiders haven’t won at the Kingdome since 1981. After last season’s 33-3 wipeout in Seattle, Lester Hayes said: “We can’t beat these guys here. They could give us an all-star team and we couldn’t beat them.”

This meeting has more subplots than “Hamlet.”

Marcus Allen, the franchise, is expected to return after a two-week absence in which his teammates greased out two victories. His right ankle is still sore, though. Can he make those swooping cuts on it?

Jim Plunkett, who is becoming a co-No. 1 quarterback in effect if not in theory, is expected to make his second start, while Marc Wilson’s thumb continues to heal.

The Seahawks, considered as darkhorses two years ago and as overrated Super Bowl contenders last season, are back in their most dangerous mode--underrated. Curt Warner has returned to his old form; Dave Krieg is still looking for one.

But with the Raiders, it all pales before L’Affaire Townsend, in which Greg Townsend is ordered to pay a price that no Raider--not Jack Tatum, George Atkinson, Skip (Dr. Death) Thomas, Ben Davidson, “Kick ‘em in the Head” Ted Hendricks, Lyle Alzado or John Matuszak--ever had to come up with.

At midweek, Townsend was suspended for one game, that’s $7,800 worth of salary, by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who charged him with taking a 15-yard spearing run at Brad Budde, of “stomping”--the league’s term--Dave Lutz while Lutz was down, and of tearing Mark Adickes’ helmet off, all last Sunday at Kansas City.

What did that mean?

--Suspension, although Rozelle temporarily suspended sentence Saturday.

--Waiving of the three-year rule, allowing Townsend to go directly into the Raider Hall of Fame.

All this happened in one fight, and all three Chiefs are no less than 30 pounds heavier than the Raider defensive end. Townsend says he is mostly innocent or was at least acting in self-defense, that he only tripped over Budde while pursuing the play, that Lutz and then Adickes came at him from behind and that he only reacted after that.

He acknowledges kicking Lutz in the head. The NBC tape shows that it was a pretty healthy shot, too, if not a 50-yard field goal, thereby earning Townsend a guest spot on the most-wanted list.

The Raiders wanted a fast hearing so it was done this way “to minimize the time and travel burdens,” league spokesman Joe Browne said.

So Townsend had his day in court Friday, kangaroo or otherwise, while Raider brass worried about side effects.

Would the officials take this as a signal to start watching them more closely?

Would their players start thinking instead of reacting?

Other results are possible. This is an organization that is used to performing under the most extreme pressures, or in its eyes, persecutions. The more evidence it has that everyone is out to get it, the tighter it bands together.

And this season looks this way in El Segundo:

--The league loads the Raider early-season schedule up with killer games, and road games at that, leading to an 0-3 start. Why do they have to start at Denver and at Washington and close with home games against the Chiefs and the Indianaplois Colts?

--They win two in a row, and John Mackovic starts whimpering.

--The league, spotting an opening, throws in with the Chiefs.

It’s enough to bring out the beast in Raider breasts.

That and a good performance could even carry the day. Should they neglect to perform, they’re in trouble because the Seahawks don’t figure to fall down for them.

Two seasons ago, the Seahawks went 12-4 with Curt Warner out because of a knee injury. After that, they were picked to go to the Super Bowl by a lot of the fan magazines, and the self-congratulation started in earnest.

The Seahawks, however, came in at 8-8 last December and revealed enough shortcomings to leave them there for a decade: A small offensive line; an erratic quarterback, a defense that lived by the takeaway.

Surprise! Knox rebuilt them in an off-season. He has two new offensive tackles who weigh a combined 560 pounds and a new attack-blocking scheme instead of the old finesse one. He drafted what amounts to a third offensive guard in John L. Williams, a 5-foot 11-inch, 225-pound fullback the Raiders were eyeing.

Needing a real receiver to play opposite Steve Largent--other than Darryl Turner, who is largely limited to fly patterns--Knox acquired former Buffalo Bills flyboy Byron Franklin and the former Colt--and Trojan--Raymond Butler. Franklin and Butler have combined for 22 receptions and an 18.5-yards-a-catch average. On passing downs, the Seahawks throw out a four-receiver set that is truly scary.

The Seahawk defense is leading the conference in takeaways. In all, they’re a full day’s work in any stadium.

Raider Notes

The Raiders (2-3) are three-point favorites over the Seahawks (4-1). . . . In recent years, the Seahawks have bid for free-agent quarterbacks Warren Moon and Bobby Hebert, have acknowledged asking Buffalo about Jim Kelly and thought they had a deal worked out to get Jim Everett. . . . At 6-1 and 190, Dave Krieg is the smallest starting quarterback in the AFC, and he may be closer to 6-0 and 180. A gutsy young man who isn’t afraid to put it on the line, he has thrown 9 touchdown passes and 7 interceptions this season, compared to the Marc Wilson-Jim Plunkett totals of 7 and 6. . . . Says Chuck Knox: “We can play championship football with this quarterback, if the players play well around him.” . . . Matchup time: Curt Warner is averaging 103 yards a game and 4.8 yards a carry. The Raiders are allowing teams an average of 86.6 and 3.3.