Raiders Survive Another Clothes Call : Pro football: Seahawks score two late touchdowns, but L.A. hangs on for a key victory, 27-23.

Raider quarterback Jeff Hostetler left the Coliseum on Sunday with no shoes, no socks, a borrowed pair of pants, a twisted left knee and a sore right ankle.

Bad day?

No way.

Hostetler also left with a huge smile that he wore all the way to the parking lot.

The Seattle Seahawks might have taken him out of the game with a few punishing hits and a prankster among his Raider teammates might have taken away Hosteler’s clothes, but nobody could take away that smile.

Not after the Raider quarterback ran for one touchdown and threw for another in leading his team to a 27-23 victory over Seattle before 38,161.

The Raiders needed another superb performance by Hostetler and a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown by Tim Brown to hold off the overmatched but aggressive Seahawks.

The victory keeps the Raiders (8-5) in the middle of the pack battling for postseason positions. With the AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs losing Sunday, the Raiders and the Denver Broncos are one game behind with three to play.

“It was a win we had to have,” Raider Coach Art Shell said.

But despite all the Raider heroics, it was almost a victory they didn’t get.

This club will never suffer from overconfidence. Time after time in this up-and-down season, the Raiders have had an opponent on the ropes only to drop their gloves and stick out their collective chins.

Sunday was another such time.

Hostetler’s 56-yard touchdown pass play to James Jett had given the club a seemingly comfortable 27-9 third-quarter lead over the Seahawks (5-8), losers of four in a row at the Coliseum and eight overall to the Raiders.

Hostetler completed a nine-yard pass to Alexander Wright on the first play of the fourth quarter, spinning around to make his throw.

It was one spin too many.

Hostetler’s afternoon was over. He limped off after having completed 18 of 25 passes for 278 yards.

“It was just a combination of things,” he said. “I was stiffening up.”

On came backup quarterback Vince Evans to keep the ship on course.

Instead, the Raiders found themselves weathering another storm.

The pattern has become so familiar. Get a big lead. Get comfortable. Get sloppy. Get scared. Get beat or barely hang on.

After Jeff Jaeger missed a 50-yard field goal on Evans’ first drive, the Seahawks put together a 13-play, 68-yard drive with quarterback Rick Mirer going in from the two-yard line.

The Raiders turned the ball over on their next possession, an Evans pass getting picked off by defensive back James Jefferson.

Again the Seahawks came down the field. Again they took 13 plays.

This time, Mirer went to Kelvin Martin on a seven-yard touchdown pass.

One minute and 15 seconds remained.

Time for an onside kick. It appeared for a moment as if the Seahawks had it, the ball bouncing off Brown’s chest and Seattle’s Eugene Robinson recovering.

Or did he?

Robinson went out of bounds and came back in again before getting the ball. That would have been OK if Brown had fumbled, but it was ruled that Brown never had possession, making his loss of the ball a muff rather than a fumble. By going out of bounds, Robinson could not recover a muff.

Follow that?

It took a little explaining before both sides were straight.

So Seattle tried again. This time, the onside kick bounced over Brown’s head into the arms of teammate Rocket Ismail, who hung on despite getting leveled.

Finally, the Raiders could breathe easy again.

They weren’t breathing so easy in the first half, when Seattle took an early lead.

After a 24-yard field goal by Jaeger, the Seahawks went in front on a one-yard run by Chris Warren, after Seattle had recovered a fumble by Brown.

Late in the second quarter, Seattle was back at the Raider front door. On a quarterback draw from the Raider 12-yard line, Mirer was brought down inches from the goal line.

That brought up fourth down. Already leading by 7-3, Seattle Coach Tom Flores decided to roll the dice and go for the touchdown that could put his Seahawks in control of the game.

It almost worked. From a strategic standpoint, it did work. Flores had Mirer roll right and he had receiver Ferrell Edmunds get open as he cut through the end zone left to right.

But Mirer, the rookie out of Notre Dame, failed to deliver, throwing the ball out of Edmunds’ reach.

That gave the Raiders possession at the one, but they didn’t hang onto it for long.

On the first play, Nick Bell was tackled in the end zone for a safety by Rod Stephens and the score was 9-3.

The Raiders came back on a four-yard scoring run by Hostetler, Brown’s touchdown punt return, the second of his six-year career, and a 48-yard field goal by Jaeger to take thelead.

The Raiders, despite rushing for only 59 yards, scored 17 points in the third quarter, a season high for a period, and wound up with 27 points, another season high.

What more could Hostetler ask for?

Well, his pants, shoes and socks might be nice.

“The prime suspect is Wis,” said Hostetler, referring to guard Steve Wisniewski. “Wis will not be laughing when this is over.”

But Hostetler didn’t really seem to mind, not as long as his clothes were the only thing he lost Sunday.

* BRONCOS WIN: John Elway wins a duel with Joe Montana as Denver defeats Kansas City. C4