Raiders’ 7-7 Better Than It Looks : If Seattle Beats Denver, L.A. Only Needs to Beat Seahawks

In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and in this valley, the one-eyed man to watch is the buccaneer with the eyepatch.

That’s right, your Raiders. Those 7-7 teams atop the AFC West may look alike in the standings . . . until you check their division records, which show the Raiders with an unassailable 6-1 mark.

Who’s going to win this thing?

“I’m going to have to go with the Raiders,” says Rick Morrissey, who covers the Denver Broncos for the Rocky Mountain News.

“Probably the Raiders,” says John Clayton, who follows the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma Morning News Tribune.

Not that this exchange is any departure from others recently. Since the contenders have been so underwhelming, it has been difficult to find anyone with anything good to say about the team he sees every week, and dialogue has tended to go like this for the past month:

“The Broncos? Not unless the league passes legislation outlawing the run from scrimmage.”

“The Seahawks? Not in this century. Dave Krieg is back and Boz may play.”

“The Raiders? I didn’t like the way they looked against the (Atlanta) Falcons. Maybe the (Kansas City) Chiefs can make a late run.”

But Sunday the Raiders did what they had to, rousing themselves from a 2-game funk to beat the Broncos in the game they had to win, while the Seahawks lost the game they needed to break through. They got a total of 7 points out of the 3 turnovers they forced inside the Patriot 35 and lost, 13-7, at New England.

Thus the Raiders can get their collective heads torn off at Buffalo next week at no cost, providing two other things happen:

--The Broncos lose Sunday at Seattle.

That’s the way to bet. They are 2-5 on the road, 0-4 on artificial turf while being outscored, 156-57, and haven’t won in the Kingdome since 1985.

--The Seahawks lose in the finale in the Coliseum.

Here’s how the writers covering the co-leaders see it.

Said Morrissey: “The Raiders seem to be in decent shape, given the tiebreakers, even though I thought their offensive line really looked shaky. They made Greg Kragen look like Bruce Smith.

“I think Seattle and the Broncos are a lot alike. They’re both mediocre teams. I don’t think they have any confidence in themselves, or in what they can do. I think the difference is that the Raiders seem to have something going for the future. I think the Broncos are in decline. I don’t see Seattle as having done very much, except for their young linebackers.”

And what chance does he give the Broncos of pulling the upset in Seattle?

“Very small, minimal. They have problems on the road, they have problems on AstroTurf and they’ve played bad in Seattle. I just don’t think they have it. I just don’t think they have what it takes.”

Said Clayton: “It’s pretty predictable. It’s coming down to the 8-7 Seahawks taking on the 7-8 Raiders. Who wins? Probably the Raiders because they can run the ball. This certainly isn’t the greatest road team, but it’s a little better in warm weather. Krieg will be the quarterback, so the Raiders can count on 2 deflected passes.”

Note: Whatever else happens, the only way the Raiders can win is by beating Seattle.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. If the Seahawks beat the Raiders, they will have swept the series and won the division on that basis.

Raiders of the Still-Lost Art . . . or where’s the offense?

They scored 21 points Sunday, but Greg Townsend got 1 touchdown, and another came when a safety-valve to Steve Smith broke into the end zone. When the Broncos were down and out and ready to be taken--basically the whole first half--the Raiders couldn’t do it, and wound up having to deal with a resurgent John Elway.

“I wasn’t looking at a football team that was very happy after that game,” Mike Shanahan said Monday. “We’re happy with the victory but disappointed in ourselves.”

They can’t pin this one on Bo Jackson.

He may only have gone for 49 yards and a 3.5 average but after pussy-footing around most of last month, he ran like a tiger. He had a run from the Denver 9 in the first period on which he was hit behind the line, refused to go down and hurtled forward for 5 yards, about an inch off the ground. On the next play, he compressed Jim Ryan’s vertebrae for him, straightened him up, and ran through him into the end zone.

Where else to look?

How about the offensive line?

It’s escaped the heat lately, since it was doing OK on pass protection and the running game seemed to be coming around, but then the running game stopped coming around and sacks began mounting, too.

Monday Shanahan mentioned sacks and penalties. Kragen, playing in the gap opposite center Bill Lewis and left guard Chris Riehm, had 2 sacks, and Riehm also was called for 2 holding penalties.

Riehm is a 27-year-old, 280-pounder from Ohio State whom the Raiders found unclaimed after the demise of the United States Football League. They once had high hopes for him, but he seems to be struggling in his first shot at starting in 2 years. He has had to replace John Gesek, the now-injured replacement for the original starter, Charley Hannah.

Hannah, the dean of the line, tore up his knee early in the New Orleans game. With Gesek in his place, the Raiders went on to tear off 185 yards rushing, but they haven’t torn up anyone since.

Raider Notes

Mike Shanahan says Howie Long probably won’t be ready until the playoffs, but that Terry McDaniel, the rookie cornerback who has been out since breaking a leg in Game 2, may play against Seattle. . . . The Raiders converted 4 third-down chances Sunday--2 on the opening touchdown drive, 2 on the last drive that killed 7:24 of the final 7:29, and none in between. Overall, their third-down conversion rate is fifth-worst in the league. . . . Shanahan on Buffalo: “I was there last season (with the Broncos) and the wind was blowing 40, 45 m.p.h. I’m not sure if there were 2 or 3 passes completed in the first half. The next week, they said it was worse. Dan Marino came in there and went 9 for 30-something. That stadium will knock you off balance a little bit.”