Raiders Start at Square One : They’ll Try to Be Simply Better in Shell’s Debut
This isn’t how he wants it remembered, but tonight when his Raiders play the New York Jets, Art Shell will become the first black coach in the modern era of the National Football League.
It’s an event fraught with more importance than a football game. Jesse Jackson called Al Davis last week, and it wasn’t because he was so excited about the classic confrontation between the 1-3 Raiders and the 1-3 Jets.
You know who’s excited about it?
Shell, of course.
“I’m going to watch this very carefully,” he said last week. “I don’t want to lose sight of what’s important here. What’s important is the team.
“All this is nice and after this week is over, I hope it goes away so we can go back to understanding that the most important thing here is the football team--not the head coach.”
The Raiders come into this game in terrific spirits, looking happier than they have since Mike Shanahan and his new ways were imported from Denver . . . amid rumbles from upstairs that suggested pointedly to everyone that he wouldn’t be around long.
What Shanahan tried to sophisticate, Shell will seek to simplify--all the way back to its original form, if possible.
That’s right, you remaining silver-and-black fans, we’re back to the “We don’t take what the defense gives us, we take what we want!” days.
They will throw more deep balls to Willie Gault, who has caught two passes in the last three games for 15 yards. They will use fewer plays, try to run them better and if anyone gets in their way, they’ll step on his chest.
They hope.
“I want the players to go out on the football field and just play football, not think too much,” Shell said. “I think sometimes in the past few years, we’ve been thinking too much.
“We don’t want to have a lot of adjustments. As far as pass routes are concerned, we want to make maybe 1-2 adjustments but not 3-4.
“We’re just going to use a small package of running plays, but we’re going to execute ‘em. It’s going to be power-running football, the type of football that’s going to take its toll on an opponent late in the game.”
The question is whether the Raiders have the personnel advantage it takes to run their old here-we-come, try-to-stop us scheme.
The last time they tried, under Tom Flores in 1987, they didn’t. As a result, they didn’t take much of anything at all.
Shell thinks that the Raider quarterbacks are better now, and that the offensive line is coming.
This will be an important question: Did the line improve because Shanahan’s scheme kept defenses off balance and took the heat off it? Or is it just better, period?
Then there is their doomsday defense.
The Raiders are last in the league against the run. They have yet to hold a team under 156 yards rushing, a wound that has proved fatal in three of four outings.
They have reason to be hopeful, though. Scott Davis is ready to make his first start at one end, Howie Long is expected to play on passing downs at the other, middle linebacker Jerry Robinson is back after a groin pull and recovered from the flu, and the Raiders haven’t needed to sign a new linebacker for a whole week now.
Does Davis dream of instant salvation?
Does a duck walk barefoot?
The Jets are beatable. The Kansas City Chiefs, whom the Raiders will play next week, were born to be beaten. Bo Jackson is scheduled to report this week. Imagine the possibilities.
The Jets are three-point favorites?
The Raiders truly must have fallen from grace to be underdogs to such as these.
The Jets have three sacks total--none by the starting defensive line. Their offense has scored one first-half touchdown.
At last, a bite-sized test for the Raider defense: The Jets are averaging only 87.5 yards a game rushing. The Raiders have sometimes given that up by halftime.
The Jet defense has been reworked since coordinator Bud Carson departed for Cleveland. Opposing quarterbacks have reworked it some more; they have an aggregate rating of 93.8, which is higher than Joe Montana’s career mark.
The Jet defensive backs, so promising last season, have been pulled back into zones--after all the talk about throwing deep to Gault, you’ll need binoculars to find their safeties--and so far the players don’t seem to like it.
Cornerback Eric McMillan, last season’s rookie hotshot, returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown last week against the Indianapolis Colts but was later criticized by new defensive coordinator Ralph Hawkins for being out of position on a 55-yard touchdown pass to Billy Brooks.
McMillan, unpersuaded, stormed over to Coach Joe Walton to express his displeasure at Hawkins’ review.
New York talk shows are full of abuse for Hawkins.
You could ask Mike Shanahan. It’s terrible being the new guy.
Raider Notes
The Raiders are still kings of Monday night at 26-6-1, but in the last three seasons, they’re 2-3. . . . Jet wide receiver Al Toon is questionable with thigh and shoulder injuries. Two weeks ago, he caught 10 passes for 159 yards against the Miami Dolphins, but last week he was slowed badly and his 52-game streak of catching three or more passes was broken. He caught only two.
If Toon can’t go, the Jet receivers will be former Trojan Michael Harper, former Bruin JoJo Townsell and Chris Burkett. Wesley Walker is on injured reserve. . . . The word on ex-Trojan Dave Cadigan, the Jets’ No. 1 pick in 1988: disappointment. In his second season, he’s a backup guard. First word on the Jets’ surprise No. 1 pick in 1989, Jeff Lageman, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound inside linebacker from Virginia: everyone who was surprised was right. He has had little impact so far.