Point of View / Bob Oates : Take It From the Top : Al Davis and Georgia Frontiere: Chief Reasons for Decline of the Raiders and Rams

Ram and Raider football teams in recent years have tended to reach a peak each September about this time.

And once more, heading into a new season today, the NFL’s two Los Angeles-area entries are tied for first.

Can they stay there?

No chance.

Although they might, finally, be moving in the right direction--with Jeff Hostetler now at quarterback for the Raiders and Chuck Knox back as coach of the Rams--their recent history isn’t encouraging.

Increasingly upset, Los Angeles fans have endured a seven-year drought:

--Since 1985, the Raiders and Rams are a combined 107-115 (.482).

--The Raiders are 56-55 in the last seven years. The Rams (51-60 in that time) have won only 14 of their last 48 games (.292).

Who’s responsible?

Should fans censure the owners, Georgia Frontiere of the Rams and Al Davis of the Raiders?

Well, yes. Whenever a pro team slumps, the chief decision-maker--the individual who hires the other decision-makers--is the party accountable.

And in these particular organizations, the chief executives might be held accountable in at least two areas each:

The Raiders:

1--For too many years, they have failed to adequately replace their great Super Bowl quarterbacks--Kenny Stabler and two-time champion Jim Plunkett--misfiring, in part, because they down-rate quarterback candidates who can’t throw the long pass.

2--Davis’ offense, a thing of strength and beauty in another era, hasn’t adjusted to the revolutionary changes of modern defense.

The Rams:

1--For too many years, the Rams have failed to properly define and acquire championship talent, misfiring, in large part, because they haven’t brought into their front office a proven winner of a sort they could have had with Bobby Beathard, Carl Peterson, Bill Polian, Jim Finks or Bill Walsh.

2--Under Frontiere, the Rams have been run as a business, making decisions that keep the club financially successful at the expense of what their critics argue could be a better record.

*

It is also true that NFL club owners, when they win, are entitled to commendations. And Frontiere and Davis have each fronted Super Bowl teams.

A Hall of Famer, Davis, in fact, is one of the most successful owners of all time, with four Super Bowl appearances and three champions in his first 20 years, 1963-1983, when he had 16 consecutive winning seasons.

Asked about the Raiders’ seven-year sag after 23 better seasons, Davis said:

“I don’t look at seven-year (periods)--I look at decades. The Raiders get to the Super Bowl in every decade, the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. We’ve also been in the AFC championship game in every decade--the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

“And the ‘90s have only just begun. We’ll be in the Super Bowl this decade, like always.”

Calling attention to Raider goals, Davis said, “They’re higher than the goals of (some teams). We don’t fall off to 1-15 like Pittsburgh and Dallas. But the game is (cyclical), and there has to be a middle ground in every cycle.”

The Rams, less successful than the Raiders overall, haven’t won an NFL title since 1951.

Frontiere declined comment.

RAIDER QUARTERBACKS

Followers of the Raiders remain concerned about any team that would spend seven years with the wrong quarterbacks.

After Plunkett and before Hostetler, Davis kept bringing back the obviously flawed Marc Wilson and Jay Schroeder.

One explanation is that since at least the Stabler era in the 1970s, Raider scouts and coaches have thrown back the quarterback prospects who couldn’t match the long-ball range of Wilson or Schroeder.

“There aren’t many viable quarterback prospects in the (first place),” said Pat Haden, who used to be one. “There’s a big falloff between the top 10 or 12 quarterbacks in the league and all the others.”

Each year, accordingly, a Raider stipulation that nobody’s welcome except bomb throwers costs the team a few of the few qualified candidates. Joe Montana, for one, could never have played for the Raiders.

Another explanation for the club’s seven-year Wilson-Schroeder ordeal is to be found in another unusual Raider attitude: This organization devalues the quarterback position.

“Surround the guy with enough talent, and we have enough quarterback,” Davis has often said.

For years, that seemed true enough. But Davis began getting unlucky in the early 1980s, when Wilson was pursued by the rival United States Football League. That prompted Davis to sign him before determining Wilson’s true value, sticking the club with a heavy long-term contract.

Then came Schroeder.

And both times, the Raiders were unable to surround their quarterback with enough talent. Either that or, there wasn’t enough quarterback.

Or, possibly, relying on bombs nowadays is beyond the capability of almost any player. Against today’s defenses, it isn’t easy being a Raider quarterback.

RAIDER OFFENSE

With a new leader, Hostetler, and a new offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, the Raiders have a chance to modernize their offense.

And there was a note of hope last week in their exhibition game against the Rams when they threw short on first down for a touchdown.

But for the last seven years, offensive troubles have kept the long-passing Raiders in a slump:

* In an era of defensive change, the Raiders’ characteristic deep-middle passes have proved more and more vulnerable. It takes receivers too long to get downfield, and the quarterback has to hold the ball too long.

From Stanford, Bill Walsh commented: “Pass rushers are so quick these days that you have to throw and complete the pass before the rush gets in.”

* Raider passers are comparatively easy to read. For years, they have been trained to keep an eye on the receiver, unloading only when they see him in the open after his last cut. And defenses are trained to read a passer’s eyes.

From Dallas, an NFL scout noted, “You can’t read Troy Aikman because he (usually) throws before the receiver’s last cut. He throws quickly to a spot (on the field) before the coverage can get to the receiver, and before the rush can get to him.”

* The Raiders have shown little interest in short-pass systems of the kind operated by the 49ers or Cowboys. One year, Davis brought in Mike Shanahan, a modern-pass expert, as head coach but soon let him go.

Shanahan now is the offensive coordinator at San Francisco, where a 49er spokesman said, “Last year, Mike’s offense was the most productive in the league.”

* Davis’ coaches have given up on several of the most helpful aspects of the Raiders’ good old offense.

--They have abandoned the offensive scheme that made them famous, a true halfback-fullback approach blending a quality open-field threat like Clarence Davis or Marcus Allen with a power fullback like Marv Hubbard or Mark van Eeghen

In recent years, by contrast, they have tended to play I-formation-type football with, essentially, a third guard lined up as a blocking back.

--The Raiders have also abandoned aggressive passing in the scoring zone. They have been running on first down from the other team’s 30-yard line and closer--to keep the defense honest, as they say--instead of taking a shot at the end zone, as they used to do.

One NFL pass expert commented, “Keeping defenses honest is overrated. No matter how often you pass on first down, they have to defense you to run next time on first down.”

--Finally, the Raiders have abandoned quarterback-called plays in favor of sideline committee play-calling, which makes their offense more predictable. Committees tend to favor high-percentage plays and defensive coaches know that.

One coach said last season that in both his team’s games against the Raiders, his defense correctly forecast most Raider calls.

Other teams fight predictability harder.

“You throw on early downs to keep the defense from guessing run or pass,” said Dallas offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who set a Super Bowl record last winter when he called four touchdown passes, all on first down, Aikman executing flawlessly.

Turner’s calls were made in the spirit of what could be called Walsh’s Law.

The essence of modern offense, according to Walsh--who places his backs in position to run or catch on every down--”is to keep the defense from anticipating what you’re going to do on the next play.”

That doesn’t sound like the Raiders.

RAM FOOTBALL SIDE

Football occasionally turns up a proven winner. And in the 1990s, one of the few is Bill Polian, who comes to mind because he is available at the moment--to the Rams or any other team--as Bobby Beathard and Bill Walsh once were.

So if they wish to end their most critical leadership deficiency, the Rams can hire Polian.

The Buffalo Bills’ 1986-92 vice president, Polian made the personnel decisions that put his team in the last three Super Bowls. He is a league executive this year after leaving Buffalo because of a policy dispute with President Ralph Wilson.

The Rams needn’t--and shouldn’t--change the status of their executive vice president, John Shaw, who runs the organization under Frontiere. A lawyer and certified public accountant, Shaw, in the view of more than one NFL club owner, is the best businessman in the league.

Every pro team, however, has a business side and a football side. And what the Rams have lacked for years is a front-office football expert.

Happily for any NFL chief executive, football differs from other businesses in one respect: It doesn’t take much knowledge of football to identify a proven winner. Any layman can do it.

Some examples:

--Walsh.

--Don Shula. A quarter-century ago, when Shula was coaching the Baltimore Colts, every hip fan could identify him as a winner. At the time, Miami Dolphin owner Joe Robbie, a lawyer who knew little about football, knew he should have such a coach. And at Robbie’s urging, Shula found a way to get out of Baltimore.

--Beathard. Before he left Washington to take over the San Diego Chargers, Beathard was known as a winner to every informed fan. And although Charger owner Alex Spanos’ football insight is limited, he learned that he could get Beathard by simply outbidding the Redskins.

--Polian.

Proven winners don’t come cheap--top general managers pull down $1 million a year these days--but the question isn’t how much you want to pay.

The question is how much you want to win.

RAM BUSINESS SIDE

The Rams’ emphasis on sound business practices has led to some financial judgments that have hurt them on the field.

“This is a club that hasn’t signed its draft choices well at all,” said Haden, the former USC and Ram quarterback who spends his early fall Sunday evenings as a TV commentator at NFL games.

“Time after time, (the Rams) have signed their top choices too late to get them ready for the season. They get them in eventually, and pay close to top dollar, so I’m not sure they’re cheap. The impression I get is that they sometimes carry on their hard-nosed negotiating too long.”

The Rams’ most famous negotiating stalemate ended in their most harmful front-office decision in the late ‘80s, when owner Frontiere denied Eric Dickerson’s request for a raise.

That hurt in two ways:

--In the crucial drafts that followed, the Rams, to make up for Dickerson’s loss, were forced to focus on offensive instead of defensive help, weakening the defense as well as the offense in what became the turning point to where they are today.

“The Gaston Green draft really set the Rams back,” Joel Buchsbaum, the Pro Football Weekly personnel expert, said from New York. “That was the crusher.”

--The Dickerson trade cost the the Rams the best running back in football at the peak of his game, after five NFL seasons.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that if they’d kept him, Eric would have sailed past Walter Payton to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher,” Haden said, repeating a comment that has been made privately by Dickerson’s Ram coach, John Robinson, among others.

“Of course, Eric deserves much of the blame himself,” Haden added. “He isn’t easy to get along with. But I think the big problem was that the club didn’t realize what they had in Dickerson. He was a player who could win a game all by himself.”

Thus, the Dickerson episode provides a classic example of what can go wrong in football when major decisions are made by business personnel lacking the football expertise to appreciate all the consequences.

If Emmitt Smith is injured or less effective when he returns this year after missing the training-camp wear and tear, the Cowboys will have made a similar error, some in Dallas fear.

Around the league, Frontiere is regarded as a model owner by many who admire the way she stabilized the franchise and surrounded herself with able associates Shaw, Robinson and Knox.

But the future is now. How can the Rams recapture their old momentum?

A two-part answer:

In the NFL’s salary-cap era beginning next year, every penny is going to count. To win, they will have to correctly identify good prospects and avoid wasting money on poor prospects.

That means hiring a football expert such as Walsh, Beathard, Polian, Vince Lombardi, or Al Davis in top form. Polian is available.

The head of Ram football operations should get full authority to make the football-side financial decisions. The wage cap will keep the Rams profitable.

Then they can concentrate on winning.