Pro Football / Bob Oates : One Play Turned Raiders Around

Marcus Allen’s slashing 28-yard touchdown run that beat the Chargers in overtime Nov. 20 at San Diego brought the Raiders to the high point of their season.

It was one of Allen’s greatest runs and might have been a candidate for pro football’s 100 best runs, or even the 50 best, considering Allen’s bad ankle, and considering what it meant.

For it put the struggling Raiders snugly on the heels of the Denver Broncos, who lost that week.

But since the night they left San Diego, the Raiders haven’t won a game. They have been upset three times--by Philadelphia, Seattle and Kansas City.

What happened?

Here’s an explanation that may fit:

The Raider team has been in a state of shock since Allen fumbled in overtime against the Eagles 10 days after he had beaten San Diego in the same circumstances.

That was a gut-wrenching fumble, twisting almost certain victory into certain defeat, and putting Denver beyond reach in all but a mathematical sense.

Before that fumble, the Raiders had overcome their 0-3 start this season.

They had overcome the injuries that are still bothering their best offensive player, Allen, and their best defensive player, Howie Long.

In overtime against a hot young quarterback playing his hottest game of the season, Randall Cunningham, the Raiders had overcome third and 20 at midfield. Quarterback Jim Plunkett, making a typical Plunkett clutch play, had scrambled and thrown to Allen 27 yards down the sideline at the Eagle 20.

As of that moment, the Raiders had put their season back together. And, led by the persevering 39-year-old quarterback, had gained the momentum for a final run at the fading Denver team.

It wasn’t to be.

On second and six at the Eagle 16, when Allen fumbled, the Eagles brought it back 81 yards to the Raider four, using a rare, last-minute, tide-changing, long-distance fumble return to win with shocking ease.

The Raiders haven’t been the same since. They can’t rush a passer, they can’t pass-block, they can’t run, they can’t even hold onto the ball. The bright future they glimpsed when they lined up on the Philadelphia 16-yard line that afternoon--in the enchantment of overtime--has been replaced by total darkness, indicating that the Raiders are as human as the rest of us. One play tore their hearts out.

If the United States Football League were still in business, none of its teams would be allowed to win the way some National Football League teams are winning this year--with field goals in overtime.

“We had adopted an overtime rule requiring either a touchdown or a second field goal,” USFL Commissioner Harry Usher said. “That’s more fair.”

The Rams lost Sunday when they lost the sudden-death coin toss to Dan Marino. Why doesn’t the NFL give both teams a chance in overtime?

“The objective is simply to get a winner,” Dallas President Tex Schramm said. “Most fans consider ties unacceptable. Losers have a 60-minute chance to win.”

Jim Everett, the young Ram quarterback, needed only the luck of the coin toss to upset Marino. For 60 minutes, the tall, new Ram passer had matched scoring moves with the game’s greatest passer.

There are a lot of other young quarterbacks this season--Chuck Long, Jim Kelly, Steve Pelluer and Doug Flutie among them--but the Miami game was a reminder that Everett is getting more done than most anyone else.

“(The Rams) couldn’t have been giving Everett many snaps (in practice) after they signed him this year and before he played,” said Dick Steinberg, New England’s chief scout. “They had a game to get ready for every week. It’s hard to believe that Everett can be this poised and confident when he hasn’t practiced much and when he’s never been inside an NFL training camp.”

The 5 o’clock game in San Francisco Friday will match the Ram rookie against Joe Montana, who would be a clear favorite if he were playing quarterback the way he used to--that is, rolling out, and often throwing on the run.

Since back surgery this fall, Montana has been making a transition to pocket passer, and the question is whether his arm is strong enough for that. The 49ers’ future in the playoffs this winter will be visible through the prism of Montana’s performance against the Ram defense.

The slump of most of the traditional AFC powers this season has been accompanied by the rise of a new winner from the AFC Central Division, the Cleveland Browns.

If the 11-4 Browns beat 4-11 San Diego at Cleveland Sunday, they’ll be at home as long as they last in the playoffs.

That isn’t good news to those who prefer good-weather football.

“Let’s face it, this isn’t the south of France,” Art Modell, owner of the Browns, said from Cleveland. “But we welcome all who want to visit us.”

The Browns have overcome the drug-related death of free safety Don Rogers and the injuries that took out their backfield, Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner, to win their second straight division title.

“We didn’t sneak in this year. We belong there,” said cornerback Hanford Dixon, noting that the Browns had won the championship of the Central Division last season with an 8-8 record.

The difference now is their new quarterback, second-year pro Bernie Kosar.

“Bernie is an unpretty passer who plays football flat-footed and usually throws off the wrong foot,” Modell said. “But he sees everything, and he hangs in the pocket with a lot of poise while throwing.”

The scouts say the same things about Kosar, usually putting it in stronger language. They’ve called him the worst-looking passer of his generation.

But he may also be the smartest. Though he has thrown the ball more often than any other quarterback except Marino, Kosar has also delivered the NFL’s fewest interceptions this year. The truth seems to be that, compared to most veteran quarterbacks, Kosar, despite his inexperience, is an almost magical reader of defensive plays and players.

He has also been lucky in his coaches, Marty Schottenheimer, who succeeded Sam Rutigliano in 1984, and Lindy Infante, the Browns’ new offensive coordinator from the USFL.

“Schottenheimer is a comer,” Modell said. “He’s methodical, studious. Nobody spends more time preparing for a game. He also makes good predictions. Before the season, Marty told me: ‘We’ll win the division easier this year. Don’t worry about it.’ I didn’t.”

The Cincinnati Bengals, who lost the title game to Cleveland Sunday, 34-3, have more talent than the Browns can put on the field.

Their problem is that quarterback Boomer Esiason is almost as streaky as Seattle’s Dave Krieg--though for different reasons.

Krieg is an overachiever who gets into trouble when he tries to play beyond himself.

Esiason, his coaches say, is an immature underachiever.

The Washington Redskins lost two young receivers Sunday, Gary Clark and tight end Anthony Jones, when each was clobbered by the Broncos well after the ball had gone by them.

“There’s been altogether too much of this recently,” 49er Coach Bill Walsh said. “It’s legal (violence) when a defensive back hits you just as the ball arrives. It’s illegal violence, and there should be more penalties, when a (receiver) is hit when the pass is high and beyond him, or when he obviously (drops the pass) before the defensive back comes in.”