PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Shell Happy They’re Not Sack Happy

After four sacks in their 12-7 victory over the San Diego Chargers last week, the Raiders regained their No. 1 AFC ranking and ended a mild slump in getting to opposing quarterbacks.

“When you start getting a bunch of sacks, like we were at the beginning of the season, teams started making a concentrated effort to stop us,” said Coach Art Shell. “Then, once teams started having success running the ball against us, it made it awfully difficult for us to rush the passer.”

With opponents geared to slow their pass rush by keeping an extra blocker in the backfield, the Raiders were tempted to blitz more. But they stayed with their basic rush.

“We are a team that likes to rush only our four down linemen,” Shell said. “Very seldom do we like to bring a fifth guy to rush. We just try to stay with four to get to the quarterback.”

Defensive end Anthony Smith, who leads the NFL with 12 sacks, and the other Raider pass rushers might have hurt the team’s sack pace by looking for big plays.

“It probably was a combination of a few things, but I think maybe they became sack happy,” Shell said. “Instead of just playing, they maybe were trying for sacks too much.”

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Jeff Jaeger has an AFC-leading 22 field goals, including four against San Diego last week, and is seven from his single-season team record, set in 1991.