Raiders to Invade Kansas City’s Clean House : Chiefs, Boasting New Regime, Are Favored Today

KANSAS CITY —  And on the positive side . . .

For the first time in months, there are smiles all around in Raiderdom. Last week’s 40-14 rout of the San Diego Chargers sends them into today’s game with the Kansas City Chiefs with a chance to prove that despite everything, they’re still contenders in their humble division.

Of course, they have to win to prove it. The Raiders are slight underdogs.

Their regrouping continues. Otis Wilson is out again and Emmanuel King, another Plan B signee, goes to outside linebacker. Jerry Robinson, the projected middle linebacker, practiced for the first time since pulling a groin muscle at the start of camp, and might play a little.

If Howie Long and Scott Davis are ready, the No. 1 defensive front will make its debut. However, to put the entire projected starting unit together, the Raiders will have to wait at least a month until strong safety Russell Carter returns.

If the defense improved over its exhibition season yield of 435 yards a game, it still has some work left. The Chargers tore off an 85-yard, 79-on-the-ground drive to start last week’s game and wound up with an impressive 171 rushing yards. On the hopeful side for the Raiders, after that first drive they gave up 220 yards.

Their offense needs only to continue what it started, when Jay Schroeder and Steve Beuerlein launched the long-strike offense Al Davis had been demanding: 17 completions for a 16.8-yard average (32.8 per catch and a touchdown for Willie Gault; 16.3 and a touchdown for Mervyn Fernandez).

Who gets to try to carry it on today?

Schroeder, coming off his separated left shoulder, proclaimed his readiness all week. Raider Coach Mike Shanahan said he would monitor the situation daily. What does it all mean? Tune in today to see who takes the snaps.

It’s a new day in Kansas City.

Tom Flores used to marvel at how the Chiefs always seemed to pick the Raider game for old-timers day, which would result in a sellout crowd and the introduction of the usual warhorses: Len Dawson, Otis Taylor, Buck Buchanan, Ed Budde, etc.

But after only one playoff appearance in the 17 years since Arrowhead Stadium opened, owner Lamar Hunt cleaned house. In came Dick Vermeil’s old UCLA/Eagles assistant, Carl Peterson, as general manager, and ex-Brown Marty Schottenheimer as coach.

Peterson brought in 17 staff people from Philadelphia.

Schottenheimer brought in most of his Browns coaching staff.

House cleaning? It extended all the way down to Warpaint, the horse that used to gallop around after Chiefs touchdowns. He got canned, too.

So it’s a brand new regime, and one which is not tack sharp about its antecedents, including this rivalry.

“I know virtually nothing about the rivalry,” Schottenheimer told Kansas City writers last week.

“I don’t know that the rivalry is an ongoing thing. Back in the late ‘60s when they were both American Football League teams, I understand there was a rivalry then. It sounds . . . judging from the line of questioning, that it obviously still exists.”

The Chiefs opened the season in a fit of optimism. They’re supposed to have a lot of talent and they have the last-place schedule, too. While everyone else in the division is matched against the NFC East (the Raiders have dates at Philadelphia and in the Meadowlands against the Giants), they will play the Dolphins twice, Green Bay and Dallas.

The Chiefs opened at Denver and fell, 34-20. Is this just the same old mess in a new wrapping?

Perhaps not.

The Chiefs, a historic stiff in Mile High Stadium, out-gained the Broncos. Four Chief turnovers--worth 21 points--decided it.

The 35-year-old quarterback, Steve DeBerg, whose own history is aces as a backup but not so hot as a starter, provided three of the four. In his first two plays, he threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown and fumbled to set up another touchdown. The Chiefs were down, 17-0, nine minutes into the game.

They fought back, cutting the deficit to 27-20, before DeBerg threw another interception that was returned for a touchdown. In Kansas City, the local burning question is how DeBerg won the No. 1 job over even-older Ron Jaworski, who was said to have the better exhibition season?

Anyway, the Chiefs, 27th and 28th against the rush in their last two seasons, held Denver to 100 yards rushing. Their defense, spearheaded by nose tackle Bill Maas, end Neil Smith, rookie linebacker Derrick Thomas and their Pro Bowl-studded secondary, is rated as potentially strong. Their offense is a question mark, as is their immediate future. Today is an important test all around.