A Showdown in K.C. Is Like Old Times : Raiders: Not since 1973 have the teams played for so much so late in the season.

You have to go back to the days of Bobby Bell and bell bottoms, George Blanda and John Madden to find a group of Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs that were fighting for the same reason in the same season.

The last time the Raiders and Chiefs faced one another this late in the season as the top two contenders was 1973.

Seventeen years later, it’s another showdown for the Raiders (6-1) and Chiefs (4-3) at Arrowhead Stadium. If you don’t think the game has changed since then, you haven’t stood in an elevator next to Chief tailback Christian Okoye, whose partner in the backfield is a “tiny” runner named Barry Word, who stands 6-feet-2 and weighs 240 pounds.

Okoye, the NFL rushing leader in 1989, is 260 pounds after a week on salad and water.

Seventeen years after their last crucial meeting, however, the Chiefs and Raiders have at least proved that football doesn’t have to get more complicated.

The Chiefs’ offensive attack, plodding by design, involves 500 pounds of Word and Okoye and a pinch of quarterback, Steve DeBerg. Word has gained 316 yards in 49 carries, Okoye 515 in 145.

Raider nose tackle Bob Golic, an 11-year veteran, remembers when a big running back meant Franco Harris. Golic said it’s not fair that he should be asked to tackle someone his own size.

“I was going to complain,” Golic said. “But there’s nobody to complain to.”

Golic blames the concept of wide-load carriers on the Chicago Bears and their occasional use of defensive lineman William Perry as a runner in 1985.

“You didn’t see too many 260 pounders until they gave the ball to the Fridge,” Golic said. “And then you still didn’t see a big running back. You saw a big guy with a football.”

The seed was planted with Perry, but the concept of everyday use has sprouted to bloom with the coming of Okoye.

“He is a running back,” Golic said of Okoye. “Regardless of size, the way he plays, he is a running back. He’s fast, quick, he has moves, knows how to find holes. That makes him a running back. the size is something he uses to his advantage.”

The Raiders enter Arrowhead with a two-game lead over Kansas City, thanks to some sporadic play by the Chiefs--including a loss to Indianapolis.

As game-time approached, for instance, the Chiefs were still trying to sort out a workable offensive line.

The Chiefs have used three guard combinations in the last three weeks, leading quarterback DeBerg to step in and offer some unsolicited advice.

“I have an opinion on that,” DeBerg said Wednesday. “I hope we settle into a final group of five and stop playing musical chairs. But I’m being told that I’m a quarterback and to let that other stuff just happen.”

Some question how far ahead any team can dream with the well-worn DeBerg at the helm, no matter who plays on the line. However, the same could have been said this season about the Raiders and Jay Schroeder, the AFC’s top-ranking passer.

The Chiefs ask much the same of DeBerg, which is to place consistency over flash. Thus far, the 36-year-old DeBerg has mustered a rating of 87.9, with nine touchdown passes and three interceptions.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time until the Chiefs dump DeBerg in favor of some budding superstar, as was the case with DeBerg in earlier career stops in San Francisco (Joe Montana), Denver (John Elway) and Tampa Bay (Vinny Testaverde).

It might happen again if the Chiefs lose today and drop out of the AFC West race.

“It’s an important game for us because we can ill afford to fall three games behind the Raiders with half the season gone,” Coach Marty Schottenheimer said.

Both teams figure to flex their considerable muscle and pound out the game with relentless running attacks. It might be the NFL’s first two-hour game. The Raiders have great respect for the Chiefs’ impressive pass rush, which has 25 sacks.

If Coach Art Shell could track outside linebacker Derrick Thomas with a homing device, he’d do it.

“We’re going to bring everybody in and, bring the seams in and send one guy out,” Shell said, half jokingly.

The Raider offensive line brings successes this season against such notable pass rushes as those of Chicago, Buffalo and San Diego.

“That’s a positive for us,” Shell said, “To know that we’ve held our own vs. some pretty good teams. And we can continue to do this.”

Raider Notes

Coach Art Shell said the Raiders might play this game with one tight end, Ethan Horton, who returns triumphantly to Kansas City. Horton, a former running back, was the Chiefs’ first-round draft choice in 1985 and the 15th overall selection. Horton lasted one season before being released. With the 16th pick of that draft, the San Francisco 49ers selected receiver Jerry Rice.