It’s Time Raiders Fade In--or Fade Out : Chargers Stand Between Them and .500 Record
Their eyes fixed on the stars, or the top of their division anyway, the Raiders have come looking for the .500 mark and first place.
In the AFC West, those may be one and the same, so this could be their lucky night.
They’re 3-point favorites over the San Diego Chargers (2-7). Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks are rated even with the Buffalo Bills in the Kingdome, and the Denver Broncos will entertain those traveling bearers of R and R, the Kansas City Chiefs. Victories by the Raiders, Bills and Broncos would produce a 3-way tie at 5-5 for the lead, with the Raiders possessing a 5-0 division record, besides.
Of course, there’s no way the Raiders can lose here, is there?
Is there?
Well . . .
The Raiders are at that point where they’re going to have to do more than congratulate themselves for staying in the race. Three of their victories have been against the Chiefs and the Chargers, and they haven’t been impressive in any of them.
If there are good reasons for their slow development--new coaches, a young quarterback, a late-arriving quarterback, a later-arriving halfback, injuries that halved the starting secondary and will probably result in the seventh different offensive line tonight--at some point, you have to show a little more or give up the ghost.
Starting with the lines:
One Raider virtue is that they were never about to become one of those AFC finesse teams. If they ever get good again, they can go back to kicking rear ends, NFC-style.
But that depends on controlling both sides of the line of scrimmage, an increasingly dubious proposition in recent seasons.
On offense, they now start a first-year free agent at right tackle, Rory Graves; veteran Don Mosebar, and three other interior linemen with a total of four pro seasons’ experience; Bruce Wilkerson; Bill Lewis if injury-free, and John Gesek. Alex Gibbs, who came from Denver with Coach Mike Shanahan, has done a fine job on pass protection.
The Raiders have allowed 26 sacks, even counting that 9-sack debacle against the Rams a week after Mosebar was hurt and 2 weeks after Jim Lachey was traded. In the 6 games since, they have allowed 10 sacks. If they maintain that pace, they’ll finish with 38, or 15 fewer than last season.
The rushing game hasn’t hit its stride, although predictably it picked up after Bo Jackson arrived. Jackson, however, is averaging only 4.9 yards a carry, modest for him. Last season, he averaged 6.8.
Of course, he didn’t really break out last season until his fifth game, at Seattle. Tonight’s game will be his fourth.
It is probably because Shanahan wants to kick the running game into gear, and to keep Steve Beuerlein away from third-and-long blitzes, that the Raiders went basic last week. But if the ground game clicks, everything else could fall into place.
That’s tonight’s test. The Chargers are playing well against the run, giving up an average of only 3.6 yards a carry.
On defense, Bill Pickel has come back to what he was in the new four-man line, former pass-rush specialist Greg Townsend is doing OK, and rookie Scott Davis is coming on. But the new front means one fewer linebacker, and something is being lost somewhere . . . on the ground.
The Chiefs, the third-worst rushing team in the league, hit the Raiders for 145 yards, and the New Orleans Saints went for 190 the week before.
The standards for dominating teams are a good deal higher than that. The ’85 Raiders didn’t allow 100 yards to any back in the entire regular season, and the Chicago Bears just had their streak in this category broken at 30 games.
Getting Howie Long back in a week or so will help, but in the meantime, the Raiders need to prove they can really play that 4-3.
The Chargers are an interesting test here, too. They’re averaging a fat 4.7 yards a carry.
What ever happened to the San Diego Super Chargers?
They’re 2-13 since midseason of 1987. Attendance has fallen perilously, and once-youthful Coach Al Saunders is in danger of growing no older on this job.
General Manager Steve Ortmayer, the highly regarded former Raider, is taking heat for the Lachey-John Clay and Napoleon McCallum deal. Clay made one start before going on injured reserve, McCallum is still at sea, and Ortmayer is sometimes billed in the San Diego Union as “Ort the Raider.”
Ortmayer, however, arrived relatively late in the franchise’s slide, inheriting a raft of problems: fading stars Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow and Wes Chandler, and new, holdout stars Lachey, whom owner Alex Spanos ordered traded, and Chip Banks, whom Spanos is letting sit.
The Chargers don’t have a 30-year-old left, they’re pretty tough but they’re still mostly ineffective--27th in yards gained, 26th in scoring. Troy Aikman gets so much ink in the San Diego papers, you’d think he was a native.
Future residency isn’t out of the question, though.
Raider Notes
Raider center Bill Lewis, who has an ankle injury, will probably be replaced by left guard John Gesek, with just-activated Chris Riehm stepping in at left guard. . . . Remember Babe Laufenberg, whom Charger Coach Al Saunders said was kind of a local folk hero? New offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome liked him from their Redskin days, but the Babe started only six games, which local observers considered kind. Mark Malone, acquired from the Steelers for a No. 7 pick, starts now, but Rhome says he’d like to see more of Mark Vlasic. So would the Raiders, probably.
San Diego’s No. 1 pick, Anthony Miller, the Tennessee flyer, caught 2 scoring passes in Seattle last week and is doing well, but the question is: Why not John Stephens, whom the Chargers considered, or pretended to consider? They want to be a power-running team, and Stephens, who went to the New England Patriots, is a power runner. He is third in the AFC in rushing after his 124-yard game against the Bears last week. . . . Chargers to watch: Gary Anderson is averaging 4.4 yards a carry. Lee Williams has 6 sacks. Ralf Mojsiejenko, nicknamed Mojo, is averaging 47.5 yards a punt and has made 19 of 48 field-goal kicks of 50 yards or longer.
Tight end Todd Christensen, who has had 7 of his 14 100-yards-receiving games against the Chargers, returns to the lineup. Marcus Allen, a San Diego native, returns to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, where he has rushed for 100 yards 3 times in 7 games. . . . The Raiders won the first meeting, 24-13. They led, 17-13, late in the game, when the Chargers went for it on fourth and long at their own 1 and missed. Allen later dived for a final touchdown.