There’s Still Some Hope for the Rundown Raiders

The Raiders took a reality check in this cold, cold heart of the outside world and flunked.

Any resemblance between them and a playoff team was coincidental, not to mention fleeting. The Buffalo Bills, a real playoff team, brushed them aside Sunday like a bunch of punks, 37-21, making you wonder if the Raiders still have their own hearts set on the postseason, and if so, why?

They gave up another 255 rushing yards--almost two full bad days’ work--turned the ball over three times and were embarrassed again. Two weeks ago, they gave up 100 yards rushing to not one, but two Seattle backs. In that game, the bill only came to 247 yards, so this was worse. This has happened so often recently, they ought to change the colors to silver, black and red-faced.

The Raiders then flew home to be informed somewhere over Arizona or Palm Springs that fate had granted them a last chance. The Seahawks beat the Broncos Sunday night, so the 7-8 Raiders will play 8-7 Seattle next Sunday at the Coliseum for the AFC West title, winner take all. If it’s the Raiders, they’ll have the best division record, and they’ll be division champs.

Then they’ll probably go to Cincinnati, and try to improve on Sunday’s effort, which won’t be hard.

What happened?

Was it the weather--11 degrees, and minus-14 with wind chill?

Maybe their biorhythms were low?

Or did they just get whipped?

“Basically,” said safety Vann McElroy, choosing the latter.

And the cold?

“I mean, here we are,” McElroy said. “We don’t have to live in this stuff. I mean, this is kind of like a thing where you do it one day and you get out. It was kind of exciting.”

Before their Saturday workout here, the Raiders hadn’t been on a football field on a day under 60 degrees all season, but that’s more a cop-out than an excuse and no Raider offered it. Not Jay Schroeder, who lost two fumbles, nor Tim Brown who fumbled away a punt for the first time as a pro.

The Raiders came packing 1,700 pounds of gloves, boots, parkas, scarfs, thermal underwear, and ski caps and enough assorted other paraphernalia to scale Mt. Everest. Coach Mike Shanahan, who goes about 140 pounds normally, may have made 200 when fully garbed out. The Raiders worked out Saturday on a day they thought was even colder than Sunday.

They thought they were ready . . .

They kicked off to the Bills, who drove 80 yards on them in 15 plays, with Jim Kelly accounting for 50 yards on 4-of-5 passing. The Raiders held on third down at the 1-foot line, while the locals flashed back to their Tampa Bay no-touchdown nightmare the week before when Robb Riddick was denied at the goal line. Bills Coach Marv Levy, determined to break the hex, sent Riddick over the top on fourth down, and this time Riddick scored.

The Raiders struck back. Schroeder marched them 71 yards in the other direction--their longest drive in 5 weeks--with Steve Smith knifing the final yard for a 7-7 tie.

Then the game turned.

On the next Bills play from scrimmage, Kelly was hit by a blitzing Russell Carter and fumbled. Raider tackle Malcolm Taylor, all alone with the rolling football, fell on it and saw it squirt out from under him. The Bills recovered.

Three plays later, Thurman Thomas ran 37 yards almost untouched right up the Raider gut behind two big blocks--guard Jim Ritcher removing end Mike Wise, center Kent Hull sealing off linebacker Matt Millen. The Bills led, 14-7.

On the Raiders’ next play from scrimmage, Schroeder threw a pass to Tim Brown for a 36-yard gain to the Buffalo 35. Were the Raiders about to get back into it?

Two plays after that, Schroeder was sacked, fumbled and the Bills recovered. No, the Raiders weren’t about to get back into it.

On their next possession, Schroeder fumbled again while running a quarterback draw. The Bills turned this one into a 30-yard field goal by Scott Norwood.

“We did give them a present,” Schroeder said. “The first fumble, I guess Bruce Smith came around the back side and he hit me right on the ball. I mean, he swung his hand around and knocked the ball completely out of my hand. I didn’t have a chance.

“The second one was my own fault. We had a little trap play for me to go right up the middle. The only problem was, I forgot to let my guard (Chris Riehm) go through first. I ran right into him.”

The Bills got another 30-yard field goal from Norwood late in the half and led, 20-7.

Then, four plays into the second half, Tim Brown fumbled away his punt at the Raider 11. Four plays after that, Riddick went two yards over tackle for a touchdown, making it 27-7, and an official laugher.

“I just ran before I caught the ball,” Brown said. “A simple mistake but one that cost a lot, I guess.”

The Raiders, playing catch-up, made some big plays: a 43-yard scoring pass play from Schroeder to Tim Brown; a 57-yard gain to James Lofton, but got only as close as 34-21.

As for the Raider defense:

Thurman Thomas got his 106 yards in 14 carries and came out injured early in the third period. Ronnie Harmon got 44 in 4 carries. Riddick ruined his average with all those goal-line plunges and gained 44 yards in 11 carries.

“Two hundred fifty-five yards” said Millen, sardonically, looking at the Buffalo rushing total. “We owned ‘em.”

So what happened?

“Well, they hand the ball off to the back, who sees the hole and runs through it,” Millen said.

Millen, the last of the Forthright Raiders, has been told to watch what he tells the press. So much for the old Raider Way. Whatever happened to the days when they said what they wanted to off the field, and did what they wanted on it?

“If there’s ever a game we missed Howie Long, this was it,” said a Raider official. “Even when Howie plays bad, one thing he does is play the run.”

Long has a chance to be back for the playoffs.

The Raiders still have a chance to be there.

How good a chance, we’ll soon see.

Raider Notes

Attendance was 77,348, with 2,869 no-shows, and the Bills voted their fans a game ball. The fun will come watching them try to divide it up. “We are tremendously appreciative of the support of the 99 44/100% of the fans in Buffalo,” said Bills Coach Marv Levy. “Of the other 56/100 of fans whose names appeared in today’s Buffalo News’ Letters to the Editor (criticizing the team after its two-game losing streak), they are not included in the ball award.” With this crowd, the Bills broke the NFL’s all-time attendance mark, set by Detroit in 1980, with a total of 622,793.