No Eraser Big Enough for the Raiders’ Memory : Raiders: A 51-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills that cost a Super Bowl berth won’t be forgotten in today’s rematch at the Coliseum.

Jim Kelly passed for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Thurman Thomas rushed for 109 yards in 20 carries. James Lofton had four catches for 94 yards. The Buffalo Bills scored six touchdowns, amassed 387 yards and chalked up 23 first downs.

They played a second half, too, but the real damage in Buffalo’s 51-3 wipeout of the Raiders last Jan. 20 in the AFC title game was accomplished in 30 minutes or less, the time it takes for some home pizza deliveries.

Raider tradition took it on the chin that winter’s day in Buffalo, but owner Al Davis is back. And this time he means business.

For all the successes of 1990, the 12-4 record, the divisional championship, the maturation of Coach Art Shell, there remains an indelible stamp on the season: the Buffalo stampede.

“That’s everybody’s last memory,” quarterback Jay Schroeder said this week.

Never again?

That’s what the Raiders will find out today when they play the Bills at the Coliseum.

A Raider victory does not avenge the title game defeat because the winner here does not advance to the Super Bowl. There have been no cries of revenge, no pamphlets posted.

“We got our butts kicked last year,” nose tackle Bob Golic said. “That’s the reality. The only good thing that comes out of it is we look at the film and see what we did wrong--plenty--and move on. The game last year is in no way, shape or form connected to this game.”

Shell maintains tunnel vision during the season, he says, and he doesn’t look back. But in his own deliberate, intimidating manner, you expect he will get his point across: Raiders don’t take embarrassments lightly.

“I don’t forget losses,” Shell said this week. “They stay with you. They stay with me, especially big games like that. I remember something about every big game we ever played and lost.”

A game involving two divisional leaders would be intriguing without a revenge factor, but a discussion of the teams invariably finds a way back to Jan. 20.

A Raider victory doesn’t turn back the clock, replace the hurt, reset the score, but it would serve as a barometer of sorts because the road to the Super Bowl will probably go through Buffalo again.

Were the Bills that good that day? Were the Raiders that bad? What have the Raiders done to close the gap? How gaping was that gap?

“I’ve said this before,” Shell said. “That day, nobody in professional football could have beaten Buffalo. They were as hot a team as you can run into.”

Rest assured the Raiders did not stand still after the loss. They fired their linebacker coach, lured free agent Ronnie Lott away from San Francisco, traded for linebacker Winston Moss and moved him in as a starter ahead of Jerry Robinson.

All with positive results.

On offense, they signed free-agent tailback Roger Craig and plucked a second-round gem in tailback Nick Bell.

“I think we’re a much better team than we were the last time we played them last year,” Shell said. “The defensive front is playing as good as they’ve ever played before.”

The Raiders have won four consecutive games and six of their last seven, but the Bills have not exactly regressed. Buffalo wrapped up its fourth consecutive AFC East title last week and has the conference’s best record at 11-2.

The Bills’ motivation comes from their own painful past, Jan. 27, when they lost a Super Bowl game to the New York Giants.

The Raiders probably need this game more because their playoff fate has yet to be determined. The Bills got a break Monday night when Philadelphia defeated Houston, which gave Buffalo a two-game cushion over Houston, Denver and the Raiders in the race for the AFC’s best record, which would secure home-field advantage.

Buffalo Coach Marv Levy says the season is a race, and that his team is just getting started.

“We constantly talk about the fact that you don’t win the mile run at the 880 (-yard mark),” he said.

There are chinks in the Bills’ armor. Their defense is ranked 26th overall, which is not the stuff of Super Bowl champions. Buffalo ranks 25th against the run, which the Raiders will try to exploit with their troika backfield of Marcus Allen, Bell and Craig.

Levy attributes his team’s defensive problems to a rash of injuries, the most serious itch having been caused by the loss of all-pro defensive end Bruce Smith, who returned to the lineup last week after a knee injury.

“Bruce is physically 100%,” Levy said. “But it takes time to get back in the flow of the game.”

Raider Notes

Rookie Nolan Harrison gets the start at left defensive end in place of Howie Long, who suffered a strained left knee last week against San Diego. Coach Art Shell said he will offer this advice to Harrison: “I’ll tell him to go play and to have fun. With his enthusiasm, they’ll probably trap him a little more than they trapped Howie.” . . . Raider quarterback Jay Schroeder on last year’s title-game defeat by Buffalo: “If you can’t forget about it, you’re in the wrong business.”

The Bills’ offense is as explosive as ever. Buffalo is averaging 404 yards and 29.2 points and has the No. 1 ranking offensive unit in the NFL. How do you stop it? “You do the same things you do against anyone else,” Buffalo receiver James Lofton said. “You stop the run and you rush the passer. Those aren’t any secrets. People don’t beat us because they have a good scheme that day. They beat us because they’re more physical than you and they dominate the game.”