Oilers Gave Them Reason to Be Defensive : Raiders: One week after being humiliated by Houston’s run-and-shoot offense, L.A. made Elway pay the price.

After giving up 98 points and 961 yards in losing to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game last January and to the Houston Oilers in last week’s opener, the Raider defense redeemed itself against the Denver Broncos.

The Raiders sacked John Elway five times and beat the Broncos, 16-13, at the Coliseum. The Raiders held the Broncos out of the end zone until the final drive of the game.

“The Raiders are a good defensive team and they did a good job up front,” Elway said. “We knew that they were going to do a good job up front, but we made some mistakes.”

The Raider defense didn’t make many mistakes in its home opener.

“This is the type of defense we feel we’re capable of playing,” Raider nose guard Bob Golic said. “We said before that the Buffalo game and the Houston game were reality, but they weren’t the norm.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the humiliation of last week. You taste that and want to come back the next week and not deal with it. We were just a little ticked off from the week before and it gave us the incentive to come out and play hard.

“The humiliation of last week wasn’t so much the points as it was that they manhandled us physically and they did whatever they wanted to do to us. This week there was no way that they were going to take control. We wanted to control the line of scrimmage right from the start.”

So complete was the Raider domination, that they limited the Broncos, who rushed for 185 yards in last week’s 45-14 victory over Cincinnati, to only 33 yards on the ground. But the Raiders, who gave up 219 yards rushing against Houston’s run-and-shoot offense, seemed more comfortable playing against Denver’s conventional offensive formations.

“That run-and-shoot is a nightmare for a defensive lineman,” Raider defensive end Howie Long said. “You’re playing draw and screen the whole day and it looks like you’re not rushing the quarterback. You look like a fool.

“I didn’t address it last week because I was so disappointed about the Houston game, but from a personal standpoint, I’d like to thank those who stuck with both myself and the team last week after what was a horrendous game. And for those who counted myself and the team out, shame on you. I’ve been counted out more times than democracy in the Baltics.

“The wake is over. We’re back.”

The Raider defense harassed Elway. Defensive end Greg Townsend sacked Elway twice in the first half as the Raiders held the Broncos to just two field goals.

“Elway wasn’t scrambling, he was running for his life,” Bronco Coach Dan Reeves said. “We didn’t protect the quarterback today.”

The Raiders sacked Elway three times in the fourth quarter. Linebacker Tom Benson dumped Elway for a two-yard loss on the Broncos’ first possession of the fourth quarter and rookie defensive end Anthony Smith and linebacker Winston Moss sacked Elway on back-to-back plays in Denver’s final drive of the game.

“We made sure that we were going to come out here and redeem ourselves after the game we had at Houston,” Moss said. “It was good to be able to make some plays and do enough things to win.”

After giving up 114 yards in the first half, the Raider defense allowed 133 yards in the second half. However, the Broncos picked up 63 yards while driving to a touchdown on their last possession of the game. The Raiders’ best defense was their offense, which kept the Bronco offense on the sidelines by controlling the ball for 20:13 in the second half. The Broncos had just three possessions in the second half and they were forced to punt on their first two series.

“I don’t think it was redemption,” Raider cornerback Lionel Washington said. “We knew we were capable of playing like this. Denver has a totally different offense (than Houston) and we responded the way we were supposed to.”