Raiders : Forecast for Long’s Return Remains Cloudy

The Howie Long watch stands down:

Long has been week-to-week for a month with his injured calf muscle. He hasn’t played in that time but has aggravated it twice.

Sunday night in San Diego, having just popped it again that afternoon, he was limping worse than he has all month, and Monday, Raider Coach Mike Shanahan said the team will even have to consider putting him on injured reserve.

“It’s a possibility,” Shanahan said. “But I would say no at this time.”

If Long goes on the list, he can’t come back for another month, though he may well miss that much time, anyway.

Now the Raiders are running short of bodies. With tackle Malcolm Taylor sidelined because of an ankle injury in San Diego, they had to go back to their 3-4 front, rather than the 4-3 they were using.

There is a school of thought among Raider players, however, that they are better against the run from the 3-4. The Chargers might not be a fair test of anything, but the Raiders held them to 63 yards rushing, after yielding 190 and 145 to the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs in successive weeks.

Why did the Raiders switch to the 4-3?

Al Davis is said to have pressed for it, having been dismayed at the lack of pressure on the Bengals’ Boomer Esiason in the fifth game.

The Tom Flores watch gets up:

Speculation usually runs ahead of reality, but if all the rumors mean anything, there is a lot of interest in the “retired” Raider coach.

Here are three scenarios being circulated:

--Flores is going to San Diego.

Al Saunders is expected to be fired unless things change dramatically, and Charger General Manager Steve Ortmayer was Flores’ special teams coach as recently as 2 years ago. Ortmayer is reportedly toying with the idea of coaching, but it is expected that cooler heads will prevail upon him to realize that he’s got it good now.

--Flores is going to Kansas City. The Chiefs were reportedly interested in Flores, a former Chief player, 2 years ago, when they hired Frank Gansz. Gansz appears to be about ready to topple.

--Flores is going to Seattle. The new Seahawk owner, Ken Behring, is a friend of Flores. The way it would work is that Chuck Knox would go to Detroit for a big offer, including partial ownership.

Friends of Flores wonder if he’d go anywhere. They say he’s enjoying himself, playing golf and doing well in business.

Decline of the West (Cont.):

The AFC West is 4-17-1 against outsiders. That puts it on a pace below that of the 1984 NFC Central, which went 11-28-1 to become the weakest division in the last 10 years.

If the Raiders come through next weekend still tied for the lead--they will be at San Francisco, while the Seahawks play host to the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos play host to the Cleveland Browns--they would even start looking like the favorites.

The Raiders will play 3 of their last 5 games at home.

They have a 5-0 division record, to Seattle’s 4-1 and Denver’s 3-3. The division record is used to break ties between two teams.

Should there be a three-way tie for first, the records in games against each other would decide. The Raiders have that victory in Denver, which gives them a leg up here, too.

The Seahawks still have to play at Kansas City, where they have never won under Knox, having lost by scores of 41-20, 27-7, 28-7, 34-7 and 17-13; at New England, and at the Coliseum.

The Broncos still have to play at New Orleans, at the Coliseum and at Seattle. Plus they have the Rams and New England Patriots at home.

Things Are Tough All Over (Cont.):

In Seattle, the offense is dying behind rookie quarterback Kelly Stouffer. Knox may go back to Dave Krieg, whom he has tried to dump for years. In their 13-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills Sunday--their third at home--the Seahawks ran 19 plays on first down . . . and went backward, by loss, sack or penalty, on 9.

In Denver, there is an emerging controversy with John Elway on one side, Tony Dorsett on the other. Elway is said to be wondering why Coach Dan Reeves runs Dorsett on first down so often--which has left Elway to deal with the resulting second and 7 so often.

Raider Notes

San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh has indicated that Joe Montana will probably get his job back and start against the Raiders. “Joe is healthy,” Walsh said. A more skeptical observer noted that Montana seemed to heal in a hurry after Steve Young’s bonehead play in the 24-23 loss at Phoenix. Young ran out of bounds in the closing minutes with the 49ers leading, stopping the clock.

Raider punter Jeff Gossett punted 6 times Sunday night, had only 1 returned--which Darren Flutie muffed while being hit--and placed 5 inside the San Diego 20. . . . Strong safety Stacey Toran played briefly at San Diego, and Coach Mike Shanahan says Toran will be brought back slowly. Terry McDaniel, whose return from a broken leg was hoped for 2 weeks ago, probably will be out for another month. Two released and re-signed players, Ron Fellows and Russell Carter, continue to play well in their places.