Consistency Still Elusive for Raiders

The Raider offense wasn’t working smoothly when the team left training camp in Oxnard.

It didn’t work efficiently when the team lost its first four games.

It didn’t even work particularly well while the Raiders were winning three in a row.

Now, at the halfway point of the season, it’s still not working.

And that’s the main reason the Raiders head into their bye week with a 3-5 record.

This offense behaves kind of like a car in need of a tune-up. Just when it’s required to go for a long drive, it stalls.

The Raiders certainly can’t be accused of refusing to lift the hood and change the spark plugs on this sputtering engine.

They have changed quarterbacks. They have changed receivers. They have changed the offensive coordinator.

And they have changed running backs. Oh, how they have changed running backs.

Given the choice of Marcus Allen, the leading rusher in Raider history; Eric Dickerson, the second-leading rusher in NFL history, or Nick Bell, a second-year back who has shown flashes of brilliance, Coach Art Shell said from the beginning he would go with the hot hand.

The problem is, it is difficult to develop a hot hand if that hand keeps getting pulled out of the game when it gets warm.

Take Sunday, for example.

Against the Dallas Cowboys, Dickerson was in his usual spot as the starting tailback.

He had four carries for 34 yards--8.5 yards per carry--during the first quarter, getting most of his work on the Raiders’ impressive opening drive, when they went 83 yards in 11 plays to their first touchdown.

So what did Dickerson get for his efforts?

A seat on the bench.

He carried only four more times for eight yards as Shell gave first Allen and then Bell their chances to run.

Did Shell pull Dickerson too soon?

“I don’t think so,” the Raider coach said. “If you’re working one guy, yeah, I got away from him too soon. But if you’re working more than one guy, no.”

It’s a good thing for Dallas running back Emmitt Smith that he wasn’t in the Raider system Sunday. He had only 21 yards in six carries during the first quarter.

But Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson wasn’t about to yank Smith. By the time he was done, Smith had gained 152 yards and scored three touchdowns.

Dallas knows it has one of the league’s best running backs in Smith, so there is no need to experiment.

The problem with the Raiders is that they don’t really know what they have.

There is speculation that Dickerson, 32, is running to darkness rather than daylight, running out the string on a great career.

He doesn’t seem to have the acceleration that enabled him to rush for a record 2,105 yards in a single season with the Rams.

But Dickerson insists that he needs the benefit of a full game to do his best, that he thrives on work and excels during the second half when defenses are starting to breath heavier.

He also has been limited by a game plan that often forces him inside rather than outside, where he has left defenders behind so often in the past.

Allen is another question mark. When given the chance, he has shown he still possesses the moves that made him a star for more than a decade with both the Raiders and USC.

But Allen is in there these days to use another of his many skills, his blocking ability.

Bell, a 250-pounder, apparently lacks lateral movement. He is great at running down the field, but not so great at getting into position to do so.

The Raiders have been remarkably consistent in their inconsistency on offense. They haven’t scored more than 21 points in a game this season, averaging 15.3.

With Jay Schroeder at quarterback--counting the Seattle Seahawk game, in which he logged most of the playing time--the Raiders have averaged 17.7 points. Under Todd Marinovich, they have averaged 13.8.

With Terry Robiskie serving as offensive coordinator, the Raiders averaged 14.3 points. Since Tom Walsh replaced Robiskie at the beginning of the month, the Raiders have averaged 16.3.

All this change hasn’t helped the running game. Neither have injuries to the offensive line.

But this three-headed creation of the Raiders has also contributed to the instability.

With half the season already gone, perhaps it is time for the Raiders to settle on one back. Because as long as they play with only one ball, three is a crowd in the Raider backfield.