Raiders Are Still Winless : Beuerlein, Evans Struggle in 45-27 Loss to Redskins

The best passer on the Raider sideline Saturday night at the Coliseum may have been the tall visitor in street clothes. Goes by the name of Magic Johnson.

Certainly nobody wearing silver and black showed anything resembling a magical touch at throwing the ball as the Raiders dropped to 0-3 in the exhibition season with a 45-27 loss to the Washington Redskins.

Steve Beuerlein, attempting to hold onto the Raiders’ starting job despite a total lack of National Football League experience, completed just 7 of 15 for 124 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.

Vince Evans didn’t prove to be any relief in the second half, hitting just 9 of 20 for 123 yards with 3 interceptions.

Anybody still have Jim Plunkett’s phone number?

With one game to go in the exhibition season, the Raiders have assembled an impressive offensive machine but haven’t found anybody to run it.

“Anytime you take a look at two inexperienced quarterbacks,” said Raider Coach Mike Shanahan, “like Steve and Vince, they made some mistakes like I knew they would. We put them in some tough situations, getting behind early. Obviously there are some learning experiences they’ll get from looking at the game films.”

Especially when the camera is trained on the Super Bowl champion Redskins. Washington had its offensive machine in high gear, no matter who was at the controls.

Even the Redskins’ No. 4 quarterback, Stan Humphries, got in the act, throwing a 62-yard touchdown pass to Mike Oliphant after quarterbacks Doug Williams, Jay Schroeder and Mark Rypien had finished their night’s work.

Beuerlein continued the erratic pattern in the first half that he has shown in his previous two games.

There was a 43-yard completion to Mervyn Fernandez in the second quarter, followed two plays later by a 25-yard touchdown pass to Willie Gault.

But it was Gault who did most of the work on that play, turning defensive back Darrell Green one way and then the other. When Gault was finished, he was in the right corner of the end zone, a good four steps in front of Green. All Beuerlein had to do was loft a soft pass in there, which he did for the Raiders’ only touchdown of the half.

The rest of the night, however, Beuerlein’s targets were not as open and the results were anything but impressive.

And again the Raiders failed to demonstrate the ability to sustain a drive under Beuerlein. The Raiders were only successful on two of six third-down opportunities in the half.

On the second interception, made by Barry Wilburn, Beuerlein rolled right and then tried to throw across the field to Fernandez.

John Elway he’s not. The ball died on the journey and came to rest in Wilburn’s hands.

Whereas Beuerlein was struggling, Williams drove his team up and down the field. The last time he was in Southern California, Williams led the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl championship. On Saturday night, he picked up where he had left off.

He completed his first 6 passes, 7 of 9 in all for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The first came on a 22-yard pass to Gary Clark with Williams leading his receiver, who had a step on defender Sam Seale, perfectly down the left sideline.

Williams came right back, after an interception by Brian Davis, and drove the Redskins 43 yards, finishing up with a 3-yard pass to wide open Don Warren in the end zone.

And that was it for Williams, a quarter and a half of work on a pleasant summer night. No sacks. No interceptions. No sweat.

Rypien took over at quarterback for Washington, but nothing changed except the number on the back.

After Beuerlein’s second interception, Rypien drove his team 66 yards with reserve running back Willard Reaves doing the honors, going over from the 1 with 6:35 remaining in the quarter to boost Washington to a 21-0 lead.

The Raiders scored the final 10 points of the half, the first seven coming on Gault’s touchdown, the last three on a 35-yard field goal by Chris Bahr.

The pattern was unchanged in the third quarter--a Raider turnover followed by a Washington scoring drive.

Given his chance, Evans threw an interception on his first series, Alvin Walton picking off the ball at the Redskin 49 and returning it 19 yards.

From there, with Schroeder at quarterback, the Redskins drove for another score, running back Keith Griffin going in from the 3 to boost the Washington advantage to 28-10.

The Raiders got it back on a 58-yard drive that ended with a 3-yard scoring burst by Steve Smith.

Washington closed out the third-quarter scoring with a 22-yard field goal by Chip Lohmiller.

Raider Notes

Saturday’s crowd was 40,363. The no-shows numbered 5,619. . . . Washington Coach Joe Gibbs is well aware of the difficulties facing a Super Bowl champion. “First there’s the way people see you,” he said. “As champions, everybody tries to beat you when you come to town. Secondly, the way you see yourself can create problems--the contracts and the distractions. Then there’s the schedule. As champion, they really load you up. And the draft tends to pull you back to the middle. It’s tough to overcome, especially since everybody is close anyway.” . . . Raider lineman Newt Harrell was removed from the game with a neck injury. Receiver Mike Alexander left with a knee injury.