COMMENTARY : Just Take the Blame, Baby : Raiders: Davis got credit when they were winning, so he must take responsibility for troubled times.

Al Davis is the Raiders. He has been since the day he became the team’s coach in 1963.

To him went the glory when the team was one of the most dominating in pro football. To him went the accolades when the club won three Super Bowls. To him went the credit when the Raiders resurrected one supposedly washed-up player after another.

Davis dominated the scene, a maverick who helped build the American Football League into a viable force that resulted in a merger with the established NFL.

He wasn’t always loved, but love wasn’t demanded by Al Davis. Fear and respect were. He built the image of the Raiders as a bunch of outlaws who didn’t need to play by the rules.

Just win.

Davis ignored the tactical trends of the day. He put together a bold offense, built on bombs and quick strikes, and dared defenses to stop him.

He ignored NFL rules, moved his team from Oakland to Los Angeles, and dared the league to stop him.

Nobody did, and Davis kept going, all the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But if Davis is to get all the credit for the Raiders’ many triumphs, he must also take the blame for their failures.

And those failures go beyond a 6-8 record. This is an unhappy team. And this unhappiness can’t be explained away solely by a losing record.

Running back Marcus Allen’s remarks the other night about a “vendetta” by Davis have been echoed in private by others who have found themselves in the Raider doghouse, which is in constant need of additional space.

Current occupants include:

--Defensive lineman Anthony Smith, who has 13 sacks but can’t get in the starting lineup.

--Quarterback Todd Marinovich, who went from the starter to No. 3 in a matter of weeks.

--Receiver Mervyn Fernandez, who went from a starter to near oblivion.

--Defensive lineman Bob Golic, who went to the sidelines several weeks ago and hasn’t been heard from since.

--And, of course, Allen, the leading rusher in Raider history, who has been reduced to a specialty back.

The Allen controversy reached a new level of animosity Wednesday.

Raider Coach Art Shell repeated his statements of a day earlier, reiterating that he, not Davis, made the decision to reduce Allen’s role.

But Shell added a crucial word to his earlier remarks, saying Allen “lied” when he told the media that Shell had admitted privately he had no power to control Allen’s playing time.

The Raiders defend their every move. Golic and Fernandez don’t have it anymore, they say. Smith can’t stop the run. Marinovich failed his chance. Dickerson deserves to start over Allen.

Each of those points can be argued. But the key point, is that they are being argued. For the first time, Davis is being questioned about everything from his offense to his personnel decisions.

The fear of the Raiders has faded. The mystique is gone. The intimidation is ignored. There are whispers around the league that the Raiders have lost more than just games.

Losing does that. It can change the image from bold to antiquated.

In the local media, it has gone far beyond just whispers. The criticism has has been strong and so has the response.

Wednesday, it got ugly.

Al LoCasale, Raider executive assistant, went storming into the press room at Raider headquarters in El Segundo, incensed over a column written by Bob Keisser in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The column squarely placed the blame for the Raider debacle this season on the shoulders of owner Al Davis.

“If you had any class,” LoCasale told Keisser, “you wouldn’t have even shown up here after writing that. Why don’t you just leave?”

Responded Keisser, “Don’t talk to me about class.”

Keisser proceeded to march out and tape a copy of his column to a nearby post.

LoCasale tore it down.

Several times, critical stories about the team have been posted in El Segundo for the players to read along with an appeal to boycott the media by refusing to talk.

Actually, the word media was never used.

Rats was the operative term.

“If you don’t feed the rats,” one appeal read, “they won’t come around.”

Assistant coach Willie Brown and special-teams player Dan Turk threatened reporters this season.

The Raiders have always operated on an us-vs.-them basis. The problem is, there are now too many of them .

It could all change next year if free agency truly comes to the NFL. Davis could go out and buy a few players like Joe Montana and be a contender again.

Winning can cure all.

If Davis believes that his way will prevail, that his system is still effective, he must wait for vindication.

But until that happens, he has to expect to take the heat.

Don’t attack the critics, whether they come from inside the organization or out.

Attack the problem.