Raiders Need to Turn the Heat Up to Beat Bills

You are going to say, to start with, that the Raiders have comported themselves honorably this season.

They have played 17 games and won 13.

If you find fault with 13 wins in 17 games, you are the type who might complain about cherries jubilee, or summer at Cape Cod.

But the problem today is not the Raider record of 13-4, but whether, on the shores of Lake Erie, they are able to take the measure next Sunday of the Buffalo Bills, the other finalist in the American Conference championship.

The game will be played in weather hardly calling for Bermuda shorts. The environment for the visitors will be hostile. The Raiders will be matched against a team with a record better than theirs this season.

And those who calculate odds in the neighborly state of Nevada conclude, by their figures, that Buffalo should win.

Oddsmakers’ deductions don’t form the backbone of American philosophy, but it happens to be a fact, for whatever it is worth, that all four favorites in the NFL tournament over the weekend won. All winners played at home.

And it is of interest to those in investment circles that each of the four winners beat the spread, which is to say, won by more points than they were supposed to.

This tribute to form might shake the confidence of those looking for the Raiders to upset Buffalo, but teams from California venturing into Arctic-like zones have been known to win.

Teams from Florida have, too, something that wouldn’t occur to you watching the Bills run up 44 points last Saturday in Buffalo against Miami.

When the snow begins to fall and the yard-markers are soon obscured under a sheet of white, you see a Miami team that isn’t happy.

Guys are saying to themselves: “What am I doing in Buffalo in January? If this is the place to be, why, in January, do people from Buffalo come to Miami?”

At some time or another next Sunday, the Raiders are going to ask themselves what they are doing in Buffalo, but, certainly, they can’t play as badly as Cincinnati did in Los Angeles in temperatures of 80 degrees.

On a day in which the Raiders turn up slightly flat, they are lucky to catch Cincinnati flatter, the upshot being the Raiders huff and puff to win, 20-10.

The last time Boomer Esiason, quarterback for Cincinnati, plays in Los Angeles, he has a groin injury. This time, he has the flu.

Take it from a seasoned viewer: he plays better with a bum groin.

Since Buffalo is rated a more formidable foe than Cincinnati, it will behoove the Raiders to improve their artistry in order to beat the Bills, who play better defense and run and pass better than the Bengals.

What the Raiders did against Cincy was get the job done, however ponderously. They made an easy game tough, which is wholly unrelated to what kind of game they will put together against Buffalo.

The Raiders have a lot of muscle, not always coordinated. Give them a good day and they can knock off the 49ers, not to mention the 1927 Yankees.

But it must be established that Buffalo has been a stronger team than the Raiders this season, was the winner of all nine games it has played at home, is better adjusted to the climate likely to prevail, and is going to present a tough package.

As you doubtless know, the Super Bowl this year will follow the conference championship games by only one week, instead of the customary two.

The former NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, who built the Super Bowl into the monster it is today, used to like two weeks to trumpet his big show.

He asked logically, why hurry? Why play the game before it can be properly milked.

Since milking today no longer is required, the extra week has been set aside to accommodate an expanded playoff schedule, meaning more cash from television to ownership.

The reduction of the Super Bowl buildup from two weeks to one is a large break for the reading, viewing and listening public.

A week of Super Bowl blather is just about right, unless arrangements can be made to lower it to a day.