Don’t Touch That Dyal: Receiver Is the Star : Raiders: Texas A&I; product’s 67-yard touchdown pass play sends game into overtime, then he sets up field goal.

After Mike Dyal graduated from Texas A&I;, he sent out a videotape of his best catches to NFL teams.

“Coming from Texas A&I; I didn’t have a lot of exposure and I made a highlight film of myself,” Dyal said. “I got copies made and sent it out to NFL teams.”

The Raiders liked what they saw and gave Dyal a free-agent tryout and signed the tight end last year.

Dyal should have his own reel in the 1989 Raider highlight film after his performance in Sunday’s 16-13 victory over the Denver Broncos at the Coliseum.

Dyal caught a 67-yard touchdown pass from Steve Beuerlein to make the score 13-13 in the fourth quarter. He then made two catches totaling 41 yards to set up Jeff Jaeger’s 26-yard field goal in overtime.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Dyal said. “It took me a long time to get adjusted to playing in the NFL coming from a small school. I had to learn to deal with the crowd and the media. At Texas A&I; we never played before such a big crowd, and my concentration level was down catching the ball. And I was having problems catching the ball. I had never had any problems before.”

Dyal didn’t have any problem catching the ball against the Broncos, hauling in four passes for 134 yards.

With the Broncos concentrating on trying to stop wide receivers Mervyn Fernandez and Willie Gault in the fourth quarter, the middle was wide open and Beuerlein lofted a pass over the Bronco linebackers to Dyal.

He caught the ball in a seam between linebacker Mark Mumford and safety Randy Robbins, spun off a tackle by safety Steve Atwater and sprinted for the end zone.

Robbins said he should have stopped Dyal.

“I had a shot but I just missed him,” Robbins said. “I wish you could take it back, but you can’t.”

Did Dyal think Robbins would catch him?

“It happened so quick I just spun away and tried to get to the end zone as quick as I could,” Dyal said. “When nobody was around me I was just sprinting for the goal line because I didn’t know if somebody was behind me or not.”

Dyal spiked the ball in triumph after scoring his second NFL touchdown and was mobbed by teammates.

“I had to spike it,” Dyal said. “After I scored my first NFL touchdown in Houston I wanted to keep the ball, so I couldn’t spike it. I threw it to the sideline. I said if I was going to score again I said I wanted to spike it to just get the feeling of it.”

Nobody was happier for Dyal than Beuerlein. Dyal and Beuerlein seem to have a special chemistry.

“I don’t know if the chemistry is better or not,” Dyal said. “I think we do have a little bit of a connection in there.”

They connected twice on the game-winning drive. On second and eight at the Raider 32, Dyal and Beuerlein connected on a 26-yard pass play as Dyal made a leaping catch to give the Raiders a first down at the Bronco 43. Two plays later Beuerlein passed 15 yards to Dyal for a first down at the 25.

“Mike made some unbelievable catches and that’s why we won the game,” Beuerlein said. “He knows that when he’s open hopefully I’ll throw to him, and today they left him open a few more times.”

How did Dyal get so open?

“It’s tough to say,” said Mumford, the linebacker assigned to cover Dyal. “I’ll have to wait and see the films, but I know that I was the whipping boy most of the day.

“He was my man and he ran down the field and scored a touchdown. Plain and simple.”

After spending last season on injured reserve learning the Raider offense, Dyal’s big break came when the Raiders cut Todd Christensen, who told friends that he couldn’t believe the Raiders kept Dyal instead of him.

“That was a big move,” Dyal said. “A lot of the credit goes to (former Raider coach) Mike Shanahan. He believed I could play.”

Shanahan, now a Denver assistant, wasn’t surprised by Dyal’s big game.

“I think the world of Mike Dyal,” Shanahan said. “Mike Dyal is not only a fine athlete, but he’s a fine competitor. He’s a person who’ll work to get better. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s one of the top tight ends in the NFL for years to come.”

Why did Shanahan cut Christensen and keep Dyal?

“Todd Christensen was a heck of a football player, but all of the coaches could see Mike’s potential and it really doesn’t surprise me that he had the type of day he had today,” Shanahan said.