Rookies Give Raiders Start in Right Direction : Beuerlein and Brown Help Stop Chargers

Tim Brown returned his first National Football League kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown and the rookie coach-quarterback combination of Mike Shanahan and Steve Beuerlein got off to a winning start Sunday.

Nevertheless, it appears there are changes on the horizon for the Raiders, who are trying to rebound from their worst season in 25 years.

The Raiders used Brown’s return, two touchdown runs by Marcus Allen and a 25-yard field goal by Chris Bahr to beat the San Diego Chargers, 24-13, in front of 39,029 at the Coliseum. There were 6,142 no-shows.

Afterward, the talk centered on a trade which would bring quarterback Jay Schroeder of the Washington Redskins to the Raiders.

It was reported Sunday that the Raiders and Redskins have agreed to a trade involving Schroeder and offensive tackle Jim Lachey of the Raiders and that the deal will be announced early this week.

Brown’s name also had been mentioned in the trade.

“There’s nothing to report,” said Al Davis, Raiders managing general partner. “Everybody thinks they know what’s going on.”

Brown, the 1987 Heisman Trophy winner and the sixth player selected in last spring’s NFL draft, scored with 1:43 left before halftime to give the Raiders a 14-3 lead.

Brown burst into the clear at about the Raiders’ 40-yard line and easily outran his pursuers.

“I can’t worry about it,” Brown said of a possible trade. “If I’m going, I’m going. Right now, I’m going to go with the flow. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

About his touchdown, Brown said, “The guys in front did their job. All I had to do was run. That’s the easy part.”

Beuerlein, another former Notre Dame standout playing in his first regular-season NFL game, completed only 13 of 29 passes for 171 yards without being intercepted. Beuerlein may not have his starting job long though.

“I couldn’t care less; if they bring him in, they bring him in,” Beuerlein said of Schroeder. “I try not to pay any attention to it. Even if he does come here, he has to beat me out for the starting job.”

Beuerlein rated his initial performance a “C.”

“I passed,” he said. “I had trouble at the beginning of the game. I wasn’t too thrilled with my individual performance.”

Shanahan, at age 36 the NFL’s youngest head coach, was hired by the Raiders to succeed the retired Tom Flores last winter.

“I was pleased with the way we played overall,” he said. “I thought our enthusiasm, our effort, was one you can win with. Defensively, I thought we played exceptional.”

About a possible trade, Shanahan said, “The entire football team hasn’t talked about Schroeder. No trade has been made. If there was a trade, we would have announced it.”

“I don’t have any idea,” Lachey said. “It’s all up in the air, it’s out of my control. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The Chargers scored their only touchdown on a 24-yard pass from Babe Laufenberg to Jamie Holland on a fourth-and-10 play with 3:25 remaining to move within four points.

San Diego got the ball back with 1:31 to play at its 11-yard line, but the Chargers lost the ball on downs and Allen scored on a 1-yard run with 21 seconds left to give the Raiders an insurance touchdown.

“It came down to the last series on defense and the last series on offense,” Chargers Coach Al Saunders said. “We were up to the task on defense, we held them on got the ball back. We just couldn’t generate the drive with under two minutes to go.

“Our guys competed all the way until the end of the game. It would have been easier to quit. It was hot, but both teams had to play in it.”

The temperature at kickoff time was 108 degrees.

The Raiders, whose 5-10 record last year was their worst since 1962, took a 7-0 lead with 6:26 left in the second quarter on an 11-yard touchdown run by Allen. The play capped a 52-yard, 6-play drive after Mike Haynes made a diving interception of a Laufenberg pass.

San Diego’s Vince Abbott kicked a 23-yard field goal before Brown’s return.

Abbott’s 33-yard field goal with 8:47 remaining in the third quarter and a 25-yard field goal by Bahr with 7:24 left in the game made it 17-6.

Allen was the game’s leading rusher with 88 yards on 28 carries.

Laufenberg, a 28-year-old journeyman quarterback making his first start in a regular-season NFL game, completed 17 of 29 passes for 195 yards with 1 interception.