When All Else Fails, Raiders Count on Bahr

Take a look at the Raider roster and you figure the team needs Chris Bahr about as much as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar needs a hair stylist.

After all, the Raiders have two Heisman Trophy winners to share the rushing duties in Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen. In Tim Brown, they have yet another Heisman winner as part of a receiving corps that also includes Mervyn Fernandez, James Lofton and Willie Gault.

So what do they need a kicker like Bahr for? Just to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, right? Smile a lot, cheer as the scoreboard keeps overloading from the never-ending stream of touchdowns and be on hand to kick the ceremonial extra point.

What could be simpler? As it turns out, a lot of things.

Over the last two games, Bahr is no longer merely a cheerleader for the Raider offense. He is the offense.

Time and again, the Raiders have stumbled and fumbled short of the goal line in recent weeks, only to have Bahr bail them out.

Last week, he kicked 2 field goals against the San Diego Chargers in a 13-3 victory, and Sunday, against the San Francisco 49ers, Bahr accounted for everything the Raiders put on the scoreboard in a 9-3 win with field goals of 45, 50 and 19 yards.

“We have a good offense,” Bahr insisted. “I just happened to finish off some things.

“The wind was right. I don’t aim. I just swing my foot and if it goes through, I’m lucky. Anybody who knows me knows I’m serious about that.”

False modesty? Two months ago, it was more a case of true grit.

Four games into the season, Bahr wasn’t concerned with being a Raider hero as much as he was with just being a Raider, period.

He was off to one of his usual slow starts, only this one was slower than normal. He made only 2 of his first 6 field goal attempts, his longest being just 29 yards. He missed two field goals in a five-point loss to the Rams.

The week after that game, the Raiders brought three kickers to their training site in El Segundo to “evaluate them,” according to Coach Mike Shanahan.

Then the team went to Denver, fell behind the Broncos, 24-0, and staged that brilliant comeback.

Before winning in overtime, though, they needed Bahr to get even in the closing seconds of regulation time.

The distance was 44 yards, longer than he had kicked all year. Bahr later admitted he realized that could be the distance between himself and the waiver wire. As a man who has passed the California Bar exam, Bahr knows a thing or two about pleading a case. This might be his closing argument. A 13-year career could hinge on one kick.

“They were not looking to make a change but I think they were covering their backside in case things didn’t go well,” Bahr said.

But they did. Bahr made the kick and then a 35-yarder in overtime to win the game and secure his job.

“Over the last 6 or 7 years,” Bahr said, “I’ve kicked best under pressure. I think I concentrate more. My mind tends to wander.”

Since his poor start, Bahr had made 6 of 10 field goal attempts going into Sunday’s game, but the Raiders still have not demonstrated a great deal of confidence in his ability to kick the long ones. Last Sunday with the game against the Chargers still scoreless, Shanahan elected to punt rather than give Bahr a shot at a 48-yard field goal.

“I think they just tend to be conservative,” Bahr said. “There is no question about my being able to reach there from that distance. I think they just wanted to try to pin the Chargers deep.”

That was Shanahan’s explanation as well.

“You’ve got to go with the percentages,” he said. “It also depends on the flow of the game. You don’t want to give their offense an opportunity from the 30 when you can push them back to the 10. You have to have a feel for what is happening.”

And, insisted Shanahan, he felt what was happening Sunday against the 49ers was a lot more favorable to Bahr. So he let his kicker try from 50 yards out with the game tied in the third quarter. It would be his longest of the season.

“This time he had already been kicking, the wind was blowing straight and his confidence was high, especially after kicking the first one,” Shanahan said.

Pressure? A piece of cake. This time he was just kicking to win a game, not a job.