PRO FOOTBALL : Raider Defense Has This Mac for Lunch : Vikings: Their new quarterback doesn’t have quite as enjoyable a debut as Hostetler.

Minnesota wide receiver Cris Carter felt sorry for teammate Jim McMahon after the Raiders’ 24-7 victory over the Vikings at the Coliseum on Sunday.

“They damn near killed him,” Carter said of the Raiders’ defense, which sacked McMahon three times. “They brought it to us right from the start.”

From the opening kickoff, the Raiders attacked Minnesota’s offense and made McMahon’s debut with the Vikings a forgettable one.

McMahon, who signed as a free agent with the Vikings in the off-season, completed 15 of 27 passes for only 161 yards with two interceptions.

“They just had a hell of a day defensively,” said McMahon, who had won his last seven NFL starts before joining the Vikings. “It was one of those days when you get off to a bad start and things snowball from there.”

Which was the case for McMahon and the Vikings when they found themselves behind, 7-0, before the offense took the field, thanks to a fumbled opening kickoff.

“That really set the tone for game,” said Carter, who finished with seven catches for 74 yards. “Once we got behind, they never really let us get into our game plan.”

The Vikings believed that in order to get their receivers covered by the Raiders man-to-man, they would have to be successful running the ball early.

That plan, however, never got off the ground because the Raiders stopped the Vikings’ running game in the first half. McMahon led Minnesota with 25 yards rushing after the first two quarters.

“They were very difficult to run on,” Minnesota Coach Dennis Green said. “Then, once they got ahead, their pass rushers became more of a factor.”

One by one, the Raiders’ defensive line greeted McMahon in his new uniform.

First came Nolan Harrison and Anthony Smith. Then Howie Long, Greg Townsend and Chester McGlockton. Before long, McMahon had met the entire Raider defensive line.

“McMahon is a great quarterback who likes to exploit weaknesses on the other team,” said Smith, who sacked McMahon twice. “It’s just that he didn’t have too many weaknesses to exploit against us today.”

One problem for McMahon and the Vikings was that they had three new offensive linemen who did not start last season, including rookie left tackle Everett Lindsay.

“The whole line didn’t break down at once,” said McMahon, who quarterbacked the Philadelphia Eagles to a 31-7 victory over the Raiders last season. “It’s just that we would have one guy here, one guy there and another guy there breaking down on different plays.

Of Lindsay, McMahon said: “I don’t know if he was doing well or not. I could only tell by the way I was getting hit.”

Which was often, as the Raiders roughed up the 12-year NFL veteran, who had won three of the four games he had started against the Raiders in his career.

With a constant rush in his face, McMahon had problems following through with his passes, which led to two costly first-half interceptions.

The first came with the Vikings trailing, 7-0, at the beginning of the second quarter when McMahon floated a pass intended for Anthony Carter and was intercepted by Lionel Washington. “I made a really bad throw,” McMahon said. “I didn’t plant my feet at all.”

McMahon’s second interception came on the Vikings’ next possession. He forced an errant sideline throw that was picked off by Terry McDaniel, who ran 36 yards for a touchdown to give the Raiders a 21-0 lead before halftime. “I was trying to throw the ball away and it just took off on me,” McMahon said.