NFL PLAYOFFS : Wiping Out Memory of Wipeout : Raiders Keep Their Thoughts on This Week, Not 51-3 Loss Three Years Ago

The memory is of a jaw, slack.

It appeared to be unhinged for the duration, 3 hours 17 minutes.

Al Davis might have moved his lips--no doubt he blinked and breathed--but the recollection etched is that of Mt. Raider Rushmore.

Stone cold. The Gape of Wrath.

What incredible thoughts must have swirled in his cranium that day, Jan. 20, 1991, as Davis sat, perched and poached, in the Rich Stadium press box at Orchard Park, N.Y.

Was nothing right in the world?

Three days before 51-3, as Davis’ Raiders prepared for the AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills, reporters approached the owner on the team’s El Segundo practice field with news the United States had launched air strikes against Baghdad, marking the start of the Persian Gulf War against Iraq.

Normally, with a game of such import looming, Davis would have been so singularly focused as to not have allowed himself to be undermined by outside distractions.

You might walk past him midweek and exchange polite banter about the state of affairs, to which Davis might respond: “I guess we’ll find out in four days,” the reference always being to game day.

But, war being war, Davis took the news to heart and shook his head, then returned his gaze toward the field.

Davis would gather himself in time to have a visiting Buffalo reporter booted off the compound.

The week before 51-3 was surreal, what with bombs bursting in air.

Bo Jackson had played his last football game, although no one knew it at the time. He injured his hip in a divisional playoff victory over the Cincinnati Bengals the previous Sunday. A creaky relic named Marcus something-or-other picked up the slack and rushed for 140 yards in victory.

Afterward, Bo boldly predicted his return for Buffalo.

Later, they would call the hip condition he suffered avascular necrosis and get the paper work started on his NFL retirement plan.

The week of the Buffalo game, however, they were calling Bo questionable.

No telling what difference an injury-free Bo would have made in 51-3, but Davis has always considered his loss incalculable in weighing Raider fortunes. Bo, at least, might have spared the Raiders from the worst loss of the Al Davis era.

Bo’s hip and the pall of war shrouded game preparations, as did talk of security breaches and scud missiles.

Raiders’ all-pro guard Steve Wisniewski’s brother was a fighter pilot, whereabouts unknown in the skies above Baghdad, with a much greater task at hand than Steve would have against Bruce Smith and Co.

Yet, each had respective jobs to do as war and games continued.

As kickoff to 51-3 neared, there was doubt as to whether television coverage of the game would be preempted by the war, as a then-NBC-star-in-the-making, Arthur Kent, filed live reports from the Middle East as he ducked incoming missiles.

The game was beamed back to Los Angeles as scheduled, much to Los Angeles’ regret.

Raider Coach Art Shell maintains no team could have beaten the Bills on that day. This week he called the game “an aberration.”

Redemption remains an operative word, although that day--a shot at the Super Bowl, a fair amount of dignity--can never be totally recouped.

The Raiders, on the field, have redeemed themselves to some degree. They have already returned a defeat to Buffalo in Buffalo, only last month.

Raiders who were on the short end three years ago return with a quiet resolve. “It will stick with everyone that was involved in the game,” fullback Steve Smith says.

Six of the offensive starters in 51-3 still play for the Raiders, five of the 11 on defense.

“If we go up there and win, we’ll talk about it,” receiver Tim Brown says. “If we go up there and lose, you’ll talk about it.”

Interestingly, weather was not a factor in 51-3. Temperature at game time was 36 degrees with winds of 10 to 15 m.p.h.

The Bills’ offense was a factor. The team’s hurry-up, no-huddle formation was state of the art that season. The key was that it kept opposing defenses from making substitutions between plays.

The Raiders found out early. After consecutive Buffalo gains of 12, 14, 15, five and nine yards on the opening drive, the Raiders had to call time out simply to take inventory.

Ten timeouts wouldn’t have helped.

Numbers spoke volumes: 387 total yards, 23 first downs. Running back Thurman Thomas rushed for 109 yards. Quarterback Jim Kelly completed 14 of 20 passes for 247 yards. Receiver James Lofton, a former Raider, had four catches for 95 yards.

The Bills racked up some statistics in the second half, too, but two quarters were all that Buffalo needed for disposal. It was 41-3 at intermission.

The Raider highlights? Jeff Jaeger’s 41-yard field goal and a blocked extra point by Scott Davis.

It could have been 52-3.

The Raiders also held the Bills scoreless in the third quarter.

The Raiders would blame themselves for seven turnovers committed, among those five interceptions thrown by quarterback Jay Schroeder, who had tossed only nine in 16 regular-season games.

Would it have mattered?

The Bills had no trouble moving the ball without aid of Raider charity, scoring on their first two possessions.

In a blur, they drove 75 yards in nine plays to go up 7-0.

After the Raiders answered with their lonely field goal, the Bills sprinted 66 yards in four plays to go up 14-3.

They made it 21-3 with 3:09 left in the first quarter when linebacker Darryl Talley returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown.

They made it 27-3 in the second quarter after taking a punt and driving 57 yards in 13 plays.

They made it 34-3 with 3:18 left in the half, driving 80 yards in seven plays.

Just before the half, an interception set up a Bills’ touchdown, and the game was history.

There would be scars. Cornerback Lionel Washington played perhaps the worst game of his life and, with tears in his eyes afterward, was man enough to admit it.

“You’ve got to learn to let things go,” Washington now reflects on the game. “Whenever something bad happens, you’ve got to go find something good out of it.”

Washington’s assignment that day was Lofton, who scorched him for 113 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Untold was that Washington played with a pulled hamstring.

“Playing hurt was my first mistake,” Washington says. “Going against a guy like Lofton wasn’t any easier.”

The next off-season, Washington replayed 51-3 a hundred times on his videocassette, not for the purposes of torture, but to learn. “I think it made me a lot stronger mentally,” he says of the game. “I had to bounce back from that. I watched the film over and over to where I knew what I was doing wrong.”

While 51-3 will always linger, a different Raider team returns to Buffalo this week.

Quarterback Jeff Hostetler is different from Schroeder.

Tim Brown, circa 1994, is a different Brown. “It makes a difference when you get a guy who can get the ball to anyone he wants to,” Brown says of Hostetler. “There’s a whole different confidence level with this team. Jeff has really made the difference. If we just go out and get open, we’ll get the ball and do what we do.”

The Bills are ready and rested. The no-huddle has lost some of its luster since 51-3 as have the Bills in general.

Memory loss hasn’t been a problem for the Raiders.

Pay back? The Raiders are hoping for a real jawbreaker.

“The last time was an embarrassment,” Brown says. “I think a lot of the guys are looking forward to going up there and making up for it.”