Raiders Return to Oakland With a Different Look

Dear Al Davis ,

I dismantle cars for a living, but in your case I’d make an exception and take you apart. . . . . I guess we could throw you in the scrap - metal bin and send you to Japan, but with our luck you’d come back to haunt us as Joe Isuzu’s brother.

THEODORE KARAS, Hayward

--Letter to the Oakland Tribune

Having proven you can, too, go home again if you’re willing to wade through a little flak, and having sold the event out, the Raiders press on to a secondary piece of business, tonight’s actual exhibition at 7 against the Houston Oilers.

In case any more irony was needed (it wasn’t), the Oilers are the current embodiment of the bad-boy image the Raiders left town with.

And the Raiders?

“Silver and Black Recognizable Only by the Color of Its Uniforms,” reads a headline in the once adoring Tribune.

The Raiders come into this game off three non-winning, non-playoff seasons and a 0-2 start in exhibitions, having trailed by at least 17 points in each. They, too, recognize the urgency of the situation.

“Well, I think we need to win a game, I really do” says quarterback Jay Schroeder, who has had a bad game and an OK one, but has yet to take the No. 1 unit to a touchdown.

“I don’t think there’s any way around it. I don’t think we’ve played well enough to win and we need to do that. We need to figure out and feel what it’s like to win, and we’re going to have to go after it that way. Not because it’s Oakland. Just because we need to win a football game.”

Actually, it’s an exhibition football game, as the Raiders demonstrated once again.

Last week they moved linebacker Otis Wilson and nose tackle Bob Golic past Linden King and Bill Pickel to the first string, but just when you thought they were ready to put their real No. 1 unit on the field, they announced two surprising starters:--Jackie Shipp to inside linebacker Matt Millen’s spot.

The 255-pound Millen is a running-downs specialist, an upright nose tackle actually, but he made the Pro Bowl as an alternate last season and he’s a team leader. Shipp, the Plan B signee from the Miami Dolphins, is an underachiever.

Are the Raiders looking for more mobility, since they’re going to play more 4-3 defense and linebackers will need to cover halfbacks downfield? Does Al Davis, who directed the Plan B signings, want to give Shipp one more chance?

--Mike Richardson remains at left cornerback, ahead of Terry McDaniel.

McDaniel is described as a coming star by the Raiders. Last week, despite drawing a couple of penalties in his first extended exposure since he broke his leg in last season’s second game, he looked as quick and tenacious as ever.

Richardson, another Plan B acquisition, was being mentioned as a candidate to run off Mike Haynes, but was put to the torch last week by the Cowboys. Haynes played well, but the coaches are still concerned about his ability to protect his back, which he still does, while coming up to challenge short, crossing patterns.

Are the Raiders trying to keep the McDaniel-Lionel Washington tandem together, to move them up to first string as a unit? Does someone just want another look at Richardson?

These are the Raiders, so if it’s sentiment vs. football considerations, it’s no contest.

The lineup changes mean that the only three Raiders who played in Oakland will get minimal exposure. Millen won’t start. Howie Long is questionable with a sprained ankle. Todd Christensen is dying to get out there but is being brought along slowly--or doesn’t figure highly in their plans?--after coming back from gallbladder surgery.

If it’s undeniably an exhibition game, it’ll still look different, for a moment anyway.

“Exhibition games in places like L.A. are just that, they’re exhibition games,” Christensen says. “They mean nothing. This is an event.

“And with all the press surrounding the fact that this particular team might go back there, it adds that much more significance. For myself, it’s an exhibition game. But I do see the significance. First of all, it’s sold out. I don’t think I ever played in an exhibition game that was sold out.”

Hang in there, baby. This franchise will show you a few things you’ve never seen before.