Raiders Are Sad Sacks in 22-17 Loss to Rams

It was like facing Hurricane Gilbert in a rowboat, or Mike Tyson when he is in a bad mood.

No place to run, no place to hide.

So once the charge began, all Raider quarterback Steve Beuerlein could do was cover up as they came in waves, Mel Owens from the right, Mike Wilcher from the left and Gary Jeter up the middle.

When it was finally, mercifully over, Jeter had 5 sacks and the Rams had 9 in all, a 22-17 victory over the Raiders in front of a Coliseum crowd of 84,870 and a perfect 3-0 record.

Yet despite the defensive onslaught, this was a game the Raiders had within their grasp time and time again, only to finally see it slip beyond reach on a 54-yard touchdown pass from Jim Everett to Aaron Cox with a little over 2 minutes to play.

Until then, the Rams just couldn’t seem to come up with the knockout punch. Then again, they didn’t have to. The Raiders kept knocking themselves out.

The biggest problem was in the Raiders’ offensive line.

Jim Lachey was in Washington, Don Mosebar was on the sideline, and the remainder of the crew barely has a nodding acquaintance with each other on the field.

The result was Jeter in the Raider backfield almost as much as Marcus Allen, and a series of holding calls and illegal procedure penalties that killed one drive after another.

Add to that a potential touchdown pass that Willie Gault couldn’t hang on to, two missed field goals by Chris Bahr and a crucial call on a safety that went against the Raiders and you have some idea of how long an afternoon this was for Beuerlein.

He wasn’t crazy about the trading of Lachey, an offensive tackle, to the Redskins 15 days ago for quarterback Jay Schroeder. He still is not too happy about it. But not so much because he looks over at the sideline and sees Schroeder. Rather because he looks down the offensive line and doesn’t see Lachey.

Lachey’s replacement at left tackle, Mosebar, missed Sunday’s game with a badly sprained ankle.

And in the third quarter, center Bill Lewis went out with an ankle sprain.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” said Raider Coach Mike Shanahan. “We’ve just got to regroup this team and head in the right direction.”

None of this should take away from a Ram defense that has been headed in the right direction since the season began. Sunday’s 9 sacks, 1 short of the club record, gives the team, ranked second in the NFL defensively before Sunday’s game, 21 for the season.

Good? Great when you consider the Rams had only 38 all of last season.

“Twenty-one sacks?” said Ram Coach John Robinson, marveling at the number. “That’s about where I thought we’d be. For the year!”

Jeter’s numbers are just as impressive. He has 6 1/2 sacks in 3 games. He had 7 all last season.

“The coverage by the defensive secondary and linebackers was outstanding,” said the 33-year-old Jeter. “They took a lot of things away from Beuerlein. He’s a great quarterback, but he’s young and I was able to get there. I can’t take all the credit myself. It was a combination of everybody on the defense.

“Great coverage means great sacks. I’ve had better days rushing, getting by the guys, but didn’t get the sacks because of the ability of the quarterback to get rid of the ball. The most I ever had was three, and I ended up with five today. For an old guy, with one foot out the door, it’s nice.”

Allen had two feet in the end zone for the Raiders on his club’s first drive of the day, but his apparent three-yard scoring run was called back on a holding call against lineman John Gesek. Bahr’s ensuing 30-yard field goal attempt was wide and the tone of the day was set.

The Rams turned around and drove 80 yards in 11 plays, scoring from six yards out on a run off right tackle by Greg Bell.

It marked the beginning of another big day for Bell, who finished as the game’s leading ground gainer with 109 yards. That follows last week’s 139 yards against the Detroit Lions.

Bell only got in there because starting tailback Charles White has been suspended for 30 days for substance abuse. But Bell will be hard to move out. How do you bench a guy who is gaining more than 100 yards a week?

Indeed, how do you bench a guy who completed 19 of 38 passes Sunday for 375 yards and 2 touchdowns? Those were the numbers racked up by Beuerlein Sunday despite the constant incoming traffic.

Yet one of the first questions Shanahan was faced with in the locker room was when, oh when, will Schroeder finally take the field?

“I feel good about his progress,” Shanahan said. “Being behind, we had to run the whole offense. But Jay will be ready next week.”

Does that mean he’ll start next Monday night against the Denver Broncos?

Shanahan would only say that he’ll “evaluate” the situation later in the week.

If Beuerlein could shake off oncoming rushers with the skill he has shown in shaking off questions about Schroeder, he might have been a winner Sunday.

As it was, he managed to bring his club back after the Rams had jumped out to a 10-0 lead on Mike Lansford’s 37-yard field goal in the second quarter. Bahr countered with a 29-yarder to bring the Raiders to within seven at the half, and Beuerlein subsequently got his club even in the third quarter by hitting a wide-open Allen with a 30-yard touchdown pass.

Then came the crucial play.

Stuck at their own 2-yard line following a punt, the Raiders moved out to the four where Beuerlein went to work in a third-and-eight situation.

Fading into his own end zone, Beuerlein spotted some daylight. What he did not spot, however, was the outstretched foot of linebacker Kevin Greene.

Their legs locked and Beuerlein went down for a safety.

Was he tripped? If so, a 15-yard penalty should have been called.

“It looked obvious from where I was,” Shanahan said. “It looked like a trip.”

Did he ask the officials for an explanation?

Yes.

What did he get?

“What they usually say,” Shanahan replied. “They said they didn’t see it.”

It turned out to be a back-breaking play for the Raiders, who fell to 1-2 on the season. Not only did they surrender two points, but an additional three when the Rams drove down on the ensuing kick and scored again on a 46-yard field goal by Lansford.

So when Everett hit Cox, the Raiders could do little but make it close. And that they did as Beuerlein turned around and fired up a bomb of his own, hitting Tim Brown with a 49-yard touchdown pass.

That still left the Raiders five points shy with 1:34 to play. The Rams recovered the on-side kick that followed and ran enough precious seconds off the clock to leave Beuerlein with nothing but desperation passes at the end.

Getting the ball back at his own 13 with 22 seconds left, he actually connected on one, tossing up a rainbow that James Lofton snatched out of a crowd for a 57-yard completion.

But as Lofton was shoved out of bounds at the Ram 30, the final gun echoed in his ears.

Game Notes

Joining Gary Jeter in the sack attack were Mel Owens (two) and Mike Wilcher and Kevin Greene (one apiece). . . . Greg Townsend had two of the Raiders’ three sacks. . . . Jim Everett completed 13 of 24 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown. . . . His favorite target was Henry Ellard who caught 5 for 71 yards. . . . Marcus Allen caught 5 for 54 yards and James Lofton 4 for 130. . . . Penalties killed the Raiders. A total of nine were called against them for 74 yards. The Rams were flagged for 6 penalties for 40 yards. . . . There were only 1,157 no-shows for the game, blacked out locally. . . . This was the first Ram victory in three meetings with the Raiders since the Raiders came from Oakland in 1982. . . . Rams LeRoy Irvin (sprained right calf) and Duval Love (sprained left foot) both are questionable for next week after being hurt Sunday.