Raiders Lose Toran, Have Another Hole to Plug

Every time it looks as if the Raiders are gaining, they receive another setback. Monday night, they added another win to their record and another loss to their starting lineup.

The latest casualty was safety Stacey Toran, who sprained his ankle in the Raiders’ memorable 30-27 overtime victory over the Denver Broncos. Toran is expected to miss at least Sunday’s game at the Coliseum against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Much has been made of the losses in the offensive line, but that unit will get no sympathy from the secondary. Toran joined defensive backs Vann McElroy (injured knee), Terry McDaniel (broken leg) and Lionel Washington (injured groin) on the sideline. All but Washington were starters on opening day. Washington would be a starter if he was healthy.

Instead, the Raiders will go with Zeph Lee, a converted running back, in Toran’s strong safety spot; Eddie Anderson at free safety; veteran Mike Haynes on one corner, and rookie Dennis Price, a fifth-round draft choice out of UCLA, on the other corner.

Interestingly, the only opening-day starter in the secondary untouched by injury is Haynes, 35, the senior member of this club.

The medical report on the offensive line isn’t much better. Tackle Don Mosebar and center Bill Lewis are considered doubtful for Sunday’s game due to ankle sprains. Mosebar already has missed 2 1/2 games. Lewis suffered his injury a week ago, started Monday night, but reinjured the ankle in the first half and didn’t return.

That left an offensive line of Rory Graves and Steve Wright at tackles, Charley Hannah and Bruce Wilkerson at guards and John Gesek at center. A week ago, that unit had about as much success stopping the pass rush as Michael Spinks had of stopping Mike Tyson. At least Tyson did his job quickly. The Rams pounded the Raiders for 60 minutes that Sunday, getting by their line to sack quarterback Steve Beuerlein 9 times.

Monday night, same crew, drastic improvement.

With a week of working together behind them, and a game plan that had new quarterback Jay Schroeder rolling out more frequently, the line allowed only one sack.

Schroeder, making his Raider debut, needed all the help he could get. And then some.

Still not totally familiar with the Raider offense 22 days after arriving in trade from the Washington Redskins, Schroeder employed a cheat sheet of sorts scribbled on his wrist band.

“Jay handled himself extremely well,” Raider Coach Mike Shanahan said. Schroeder completed 13 of 35 passes against the Broncos for 242 yards and 2 touchdowns to bring his club back from a 24-0 first-half deficit. “Situations did not turn out the way you wanted in the first half, but Jay was really cool, calm and collected.” I thought he ran the team exceptionally well. I think he did one heck of a job.”

Raider Notes

This was the second time a Raider club down by 24 points has come back to win. The first was in the club’s first-ever home game at the Coliseum in 1982. The Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers, 28-24, that day. . . . Only two NFL clubs have come back from bigger deficits to win, the San Francisco 49ers, who were down by 28 to the New Orleans Saints in 1980, and the-then St. Louis Cardinals, who trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 25 last season. . . . The Raiders extended their league-leading mark on Mondays to 26-5-1, but it was their first win on a Monday in Denver. They had a loss and a tie in two previous Monday games at Mile High Stadium. . . . This was only the second Monday loss for the Broncos at home, 8-2-1 on that day at Mile High.