It’s a First for Raiders, They Share West Lead
And now presenting the first-place . . .
Raiders?
You bet your appearances to the contrary. They and the San Diego Chargers might have combined to almost do away with the fledging institution of ESPN Sunday Night Football with a long, grisly exhibition but one team had to win--didn’t it?--and it was the silver and black. Steve Beuerlein threw a fourth-quarter pass to Trey Junkin for the game’s lone touchdown and the Raiders prevailed, 13-3.
What can it mean?
Are the Chargers ready to contend in the we-take-all-comers AFC West, too?
Nope. They’re 2-8. The Raiders, however, are 5-5, tied for first place with the Seahawks and Broncos. And if you want to get all giddy, the Raiders are 5-0 in division play, to Seattle’s 4-1 and Denver’s 3-3.
“There’s a lot of excitement in this locker room right now,” Beuerlein said.
“By the same token, we know we didn’t play very well tonight.”
If you watched this game, you know better than to get all giddy.
The Raiders found themselves in a life-and-death struggle with an ineffectual young squad whose offense had scored two touchdowns on its home field all season.
Its young coach, Al Saunders, is said to be hanging by a thread--Tom Flores is rumored as a potential successor. To set the record straight, Saunders pointedly suggested last week that he wasn’t coaching the ‘60s Packers . . . or even the ’88 Raiders.
Comparing the Raider roster with his own, Saunders asked:
“Who would you rather go to war with, if you had a family to feed?”
The reaction in the Chargers’ front office was said to be nuclear.
These same Chargers gave the Raiders all they wanted for three quarters. The Raiders got only a field goal in the first half . . . and that after Charger rookie Darren Flutie, equally diminutive brother of the more celebrated Doug, fumbled away a punt at his own 9 . . . after which the Raiders unleashed a drive of minus 9 yards.
The Raider running game?
By halftime, exclusive of Beuerlein scrambles, it had gone 32 yards in 15 carries. Bo Jackson had had runs of 0, minus-4, 1, minus-1, 0, 13 after which he fumbled the ball away, 9 and 0 yards. This was a new experience. In his brief pro career, Bo had looked good, awesome, and had been hurt twice but had never been bad. Join the club, big guy.
What’s a would-be contender to do? Make a break or take advantage of one, or both.
Trailing, 3-0, midway through the second period, they got their break when Flutie camped under a high, 52-yard Jeff Gossett punt and elected not to signal a fair catch, despite the presence of Stefon Adams about a heartbeat away.
“Dumb play on him,” Adams said, laughing.
“When he caught the ball, I just did my job. That’s one that you dream about. I dream about hits like that. Dreams do come true, I guess.”
The ball flew into the end zone, where the Raiders recovered, but it was ruled a “muff,” which couldn’t be advanced.
Perhaps taking the ruling too literally, the Raiders ran 3 plays, lost 9 yards, and brought Chris Bahr in. Bahr kicked a 36-yard field goal, tying the game, 3-3.
Whatever percentage of ESPN’s audience remained saw the combatants fight it out at that score into the fourth quarter, when the Raiders finally put together a 58-yard drive that won the game.
The big play was a 25-yard completion to fullback Steve Smith, a wild play on which Beuerlein rolled to his left, taking all the pursuit with him, then threw back across the field to a wide-open Smith.
One of those imaginative touches Mike Shanahan brought from Denver?
Almost.
“It’s not even designed to go to him,” Beuerlein said. “He’s the last outlet. We had run that play earlier in the game and he was wide open. He just came over and mentioned it to me, if I had no one else to go to to look for him.
“That time, I went through my reads and I didn’t feel comfortable with any of them. I came back to Steve and he was wide open. It was an easy throw.”
The drive moved inside the Charger 10-yard line, but then two others had without resulting in touchdowns. This time, with third and 5 at the San Diego 7, Beuerlein scrambled to his right and as two Chargers reached out for him, whipped the ball to Junkin running along the back of the end zone.
“Trey is my second read (option) on that but he’s running an out,” Beuerlein said. “They took that away. They took away Bo on a quick pattern.
“I just had to take it outside, ad-lib a little bit. Trey had to find the soft spot and he did.”
Jubilant, the Raiders took the ball away--it wasn’t that hard; Mark Malone threw one up for grabs over the middle, which Raider Ron Fellows grabbed--and punched out another 55 yards, 37 on the ground. When the drive ran out, Bahr kicked a 29-yard field goal, making it 13-3 with 4:50 left. At its current pace in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the Charger offense would have needed until mid-December to catch up.
Beuerlein said he’d been “shaky, very shaky,” but for a young quarterback with no running game going until the end, and consequently up to his throat in pass rushers, he held together nicely.
The same might be said of the Raiders, who have beaten the Chargers and Chiefs twice, and have come from 24-0 behind to win at Denver. Next week the 49ers, a different kettle of Californians, will be their hosts. This contention doesn’t get any easier.
Raider Notes
Todd Christensen returned to action, caught two passes and may have been knocked out of action again. He was tackled after making a catch at the sidelines and has a twisted knee. . . . Howie Long, who has missed the last four games with a calf injury, is now limping worse than he has in weeks. Raider physician Bob Rosenfeld said Long re-pulled it Sunday working out. . . . Tim Brown had a good night running punts back, including one he broke for 36 yards. Punter Ralf Mojsiejenko, the last man between Brown and the end zone, made the tackle, sort of. “He tripped me,” Brown said. Are the officials supposed to let him get away with that? “Matter of fact, they’re not,” Brown said. “He came up to me after the game and showed me how he’d tripped me. It’s funny, since we won. We lost, it’d have been a whole different story.” . . . Brown averaged more than 14 yards a return, leaving Mojsiejenko, one of the conference leaders, with a modest average net of 29 yards, and the Raiders in good field position all night. . . . Bill Lewis dressed but couldn’t play with his ankle injury. Guard John Gesek moved to center, with just-activated Chris Riehm going to guard, giving the Raiders their eighth offensive line of the season.
AFC WEST STANDINGS
TEAM RECORD Raiders 5-5 Denver 5-5 Seattle 5-5 San Diego 2-8 Kansas City 1-8-1