Bills Due in 4th Quarter; Raiders Pay : Pro football: A blocked punt and stolen ball spark Buffalo’s 24-point blitz. L.A.’s 10-point lead and perfect record disappear, 38-24.

The Raiders were 10 minutes from 5-0 for the first time ever. Ten minutes and a 10-point lead. Al Davis was scripting the speech, something to do with greatness and the Raiders’ organization.

Then came the ambush. If you blinked, you missed it. The Buffalo Bills, who scored three touchdowns in 77 seconds to win last week, scored 24 unanswered points in a span of 6:03 in the fourth quarter Sunday night to beat the Raiders, 38-24, before 80,076 at Rich Stadium.

Either Bill Coach Marv Levy is Knute Rockne or something strange is going on here.

“It’s usually my halftime speech that does it,” Levy said afterward.

He was joking, but the Bills weren’t.

They sputtered for three quarters, fell behind, and looked quite ordinary. The Raiders had Bills’ fans sitting on their hands with a ball-control attack and the pretty passing of quarterback Jay Schroeder. The Raiders’ line pushed defenders Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett aside as if they were nuisances instead of all-pros.

Then, the Raiders dropped their guard for a second and the game was over. Momentum changed in a flash. There was no stopping it.

“I’ve seen it before,” Raider nose tackle Bob Golic said. “But I never want to see it again.”

It began with an ex-Raider, receiver James Lofton, who burned past corner Lionel Washington on a 42-yard scoring pass from quarterback Jim Kelly, cutting the Raider lead to 24-21 with 8:37 left. The crowd went nuts. The Raiders went cold.

Their next drive stalled in three plays, forcing punter Jeff Gossett into a kick that never left his foot. Something went wrong when no one touched Steve Tasker, who charged from the left side and smothered Gossett’s attempt. Steve Smith was in the same area code, but his assignment was Leonard Smith, he said.

Rookie James Williams scooped up the ball and ran 38 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 6:52 left. The Raider lead, so hard-earned and treasured, was lost. The game would soon follow.

Buffalo linebacker Bennett, kept quiet for the most part, decided to condense his highlight tape into one play on the next possession, when he sacked Schroeder for a 10-yard loss, knocked the ball from his hand, and recovered it himself with 5:23 left.

All in a play’s work. Bennett’s bombshell led to a 23-yard Scott Norwood field goal and a 31-24 Buffalo lead with 4:07 left.

It was last week all over again for the Bills, who used a fourth-quarter blitz to beat Denver.

“It’s pretty amazing to see them do the exact same thing,” Raider receiver Mervyn Fernandez said. “Everyone feeds off emotion. They had some inspirational plays and they just started flying.”

The Bills weren’t through.

Desperate to regain composure, the Raiders mounted a counter-attack. Schroeder threw a sideline pass to Willie Gault, who caught the ball and tried to get out of bounds. While Gault was looking for the markers, corner Nate Odomes raked the ball out of his hands and ran 49 yards for the final touchdown. They were calling it a fumble, but the ball never touched the ground, kind of like the Bills’ cleats in the final quarter.

“When it gets to the fourth quarter, everyone just starts looking each other in the eyes and you can just feel that intensity,” Odomes said.

Look out if the Bills ever get that look before halftime.

So what happened here? Take away six minutes and the Raiders win going away. They pretty much controlled the first half, though they could boast only a 10-7 lead. The Raiders took a 17-7 lead in the third quarter on Marcus Allen’s one-yard run and went up 24-14 with 10:35 left on a four-yard scoring pass from Schroeder to fullback Smith.

But Buffalo’s offense, held to 78 yards in the first half (the Raiders had 231), suddenly found gaping holes in the vaunted Raider defense, gaining 202 yards after halftime.

“I’m quite sure they made some changes over there,” Allen said. “This game is like a chess game sometimes.”

And sometimes you get checkmated. The Raiders wasted a season-best performance from receiver Fernandez, who finished with 134 yards in eight catches. Schroeder completed 17 of 29 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns. He had ample time to throw in the first half, but the protection finally collapsed late in the game.

You hope you can stop guys like Smith and Bennett for four quarters, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

“They have some players who, physically, are built to make plays,” Schroeder said. “And they made key plays at key times.”

For the Bills, it was another emotional rescue all around.

“So many of the teams in this league are evenly matched that games are based on emotion,” Schroeder said.

The Raiders accepted defeat, but assured that the loss amounted to a snag on a good suit. The Raiders don’t play the Bills again on the regular season schedule, but they’re already talking rematch in the playoffs.

“I’d love to play them again,” Coach Art Shell said. “And I believe we will. I believe we will.”

Raider Notes

The Raiders had been excellent on special teams until Sunday. Tim Brown’s fumbled punt on his own 15 in the second quarter led to a Buffalo touchdown, which tied the game at 7-7. . . . Buffalo free safety Mark Kelso suffered a fractured left leg and dislocated ankle after he intercepted Jay Schroeder’s pass with 1:40 remaining. Kelso was taken from the field on a stretcher and is expected to miss at least a month.

The Marcus Allen trade rumors kicked up again Sunday, when NBC reported that the Raider tailback might be traded to the Rams before the Oct. 16 trading deadline. Allen shrugged it off as just another rumor. “I don’t even worry about it,” he said after the game. “I like the situation here. If I’m traded, at least I’ll still be playing football.” . . . Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly completed 13 of 21 passes for 182 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. . . . Raider defensive end Mike Wise, as expected, did not play in Sunday’s game because of an ankle sprain he suffered in last week’s win over Chicago. . . . For the third week in a row, quarterback Steve Beuerlein was not activated. . . . Allen led all rushers with 71 yards in 20 carries. Thurman Thomas led the Bills with 67 yards in 15 carries.

* SPECIAL TASK: Bills’ Steve Tasker showed why he’s one of NFL’s top special teams players. Chris Baker’s story, C12.