Raiders at Best When It Counts Most : AFC: They reach a new level in beating the Broncos, 42-24. The Bills await in the second round.

This time, it wasn’t even close.

This time, there was no need for a Jeff Jaeger game-winning kick. Or a Jeff Hostetler last-second drive. Or a Tim Brown clock-beating catch.

This time, the Raiders, who have played so many close games against Denver, scored early, often and relentlessly against the Broncos, played stifling defense in the second half and reserved the final minutes for celebrating their first playoff victory in three years and only their second since winning Super Bowl XVIII a decade ago.

The Raiders squeaked into the playoffs, but they roared through the first round Sunday to set up a second-round matchup with the Bills in Buffalo Saturday. The Raiders decimated the Broncos Sunday, 42-24, with their finest all-around performance of the year in a wild-card game played Sunday before a sellout Coliseum crowd officially listed at 65,314.

And wild it was.

There was a paraglider in the sky above the Coliseum, numerous fights down on the field and a sidelined Raider player racing in from the sidelines in street clothes to take on the Broncos.

And those were only the sideshows.

Center stage, there was Hostetler, spraying passes all over the field. There was Brown, making the big catches that have become his trademark this season. There was James Jett, flashing the speed best described by his last name. There was Ethan Horton, coming up with the game’s first big catch. There was an offensive line that kept Hostetler safe.

But there was more on Sunday.

There was a running game that had once been dormant. It came alive, led by Napoleon McCallum, who scored three touchdowns six weeks after laying in a hospital bed undergoing an appendectomy, and Ty Montgomery, who has become a effective force after spending most of the first 15 games waiting on the sidelines for his chance.

“I think today, whenever we had to score,” Hostetler said, “we could have scored.”

The Denver offense had its moments as well, Shannon Sharpe catching 13 passes, to tie the NFL playoff record, for 156 yards and a touchdown.

The Raider defense played on emotion. And that emotion was fueled by the Broncos’ first offensive play of the game.

Running back Robert Delpino went around left end for no gain.

But the play turned out to be a huge loss for the Raiders.

Defensive lineman Chester McGlockton, in pursuit, took on center Keith Kartz. As McGlockton did so, guard Brian Habib came down hard on the back of McGlockton’s left leg, breaking it.

“It was asinine,” Raider lineman Nolan Harrison said. “It doesn’t make any sense to go out there and try to hurt somebody.”

Veteran Howie Long, McGlockton’s closest friend on the team, took the injury especially hard.

“There was an empty spot on the bench next to me,” Long said. “He’s been a very big part of my season. It was very emotional for me. Very emotional.”

The tone of the day was set for the Raiders who felt, to a man, that it had been a cheap shot.

“If they are going to play dirty, we’ve got to play dirty,” linebacker Winston Moss said. “The way I play, it’s an eye for an eye.”

In the first half, it was more like a touchdown for a touchdown. Neither defense could do much. Both sides punted on their first possession and neither thereafter.

Instead, it was an old-fashioned quarterback shootout. Hostetler, who finished with 13 completions in 19 attempts for 294 yards, hit Horton for nine yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. Denver quarterback John Elway, who wound up with 29 completions in 47 attempts for 302 yards, answered with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Sharpe.

Hostetler connected with Tim Brown on a 65-yard scoring pass.

Elway came back with a 16-yard TD pass to Reggie Johnson early in the second quarter.

Hostetler hooked up with Jett on an over-the-shoulder, twirling, wirling 54-yard touchdown pass.

Back came Elway with a six-yard touchdown to Derek Russell.

And that was only the first half.

It was 21-21 at intermission and it looked like it was going to be one of those games where the last team with the ball wins.

That figured. Fourteen of the previous 21 games between the two clubs had been decided by three points or fewer, six of them going into overtime.

But in the second half, the Raiders broke the game open. On the ground of all places.

And with McCallum of all people.

The man who hadn’t rushed from scrimmage for about two years until earlier this season, spending his time on special teams, the man who saw his season flash before his eyes when he underwent the appendectomy in Cincinnati the day before a game in late November, broke off left tackle in the third quarter, broke a tackle and carried defensive back Darryl Hall into the end zone on a 26-yard run, the longest by a Raider all season.

But McCallum was just warming up. He also scored from two yards out and from a yard out. The three touchdown runs, on a day when McCallum gained a season-high 81 yards rushing, equaled his season total in touchdowns.

And meanwhile, the Raider defense was tightening the vise on Elway, holding the Broncos to three points in the second half, those coming on a 33-yard field goal by Jason Elam.

The Raiders sacked Elway once, Anthony Smith doing the honors, and intercepted one of Elway’s passes.

The interception, the Raiders’ first in four games and Elway’s first in 141 attempts, was set up when Eddie Anderson blitzed from his safety spot. Trying to beat the pressure, Elway threw the ball into the hands of Raider defensive back Torin Dorn.

Throughout the day, the undercurrent of emotion bubbled. Hostetler charged the Broncos’ Le-Lo Lang after the Raider quarterback felt Lang had gone for his knees. Brown and Denver defensive back Tyrone Braxton battled all afternoon.

And the officials responded against both sides. The Raiders were penalized 17 times, a new league playoff record, for 130 yards. The Broncos were penalized 10 times for 97 yards, breaking NFL marks for combined penalties and combined penalty yards.

It was a bitter loss for the Broncos, their third this season to the Raiders, their seventh straight in the Coliseum and their ninth in the last 10 meetings overall.

But what also hurt was that it wasn’t even close.