Weather or Not, Raiders Looking to Stay Hot Today : AFC: Cold hasn’t been kind to them this season, but recent play has them confident against Bills.

Raider quarterback Jeff Hostetler cocked his arm and fired.

Once, twice, three times. All on target.

Quick slant to Tim Brown? Bomb to James Jett?

Hardly.

Hostetler was throwing at his offensive linemen, not his receivers. He was throwing at their heads, not their hands. He was throwing snowballs, not footballs.

It was early Friday afternoon and the Raiders had just emerged from the domed practice facility outside Rich Stadium into a winter wonderland.

The falling snow, icy roads and brisk winds seemed better suited for the Winter Olympics than today’s playoff game here between the Raiders and the Buffalo Bills.

The temperature is expected to be between zero and five degrees, with a wind-chill factor that could plunge it to 40 degrees below zero. Snow showers are also expected.

But the guys from sunny Southern California seemed determined not to worry about the hostile environment. Instead, Hostetler and his teammates were clowning around and talking confidently about their chances to win, despite their underdog role today in a game to be played before a sellout crowd.

“Everybody’s talking about what new tricks we can come up with to stay warm,” kicker Jeff Jaeger said. “But it’s not like we’re saying, ‘Oh God, it’s awful. We can’t play in it.’ It’s nothing like that.”

The Raiders will use every trick they know. The dozen trunks of equipment they have brought with them include hand warmers, foot warmers, gloves, capes, jackets and thick clothing. Some players will take advantage of the heated bench. Some will even put tape over the ear holes in their helmets.

But having done whatever they can to battle the elements, the Raiders will try to put that consideration out of their minds and concentrate on battling the Bills.

“It’s your job,” Buffalo defensive end Bruce Smith said of today’s game. “You’re a professional. As professionals, doctors are sometimes asked to deliver babies under strange circumstances. It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind the weather, it doesn’t matter.”

Under normal circumstances, the Raiders would appear to have a lot going for them in this game.

They have already won here this season, having edged the Bills in early December, 25-24.

And that game ignited the Raider offense. Those 25 points were the most the team had scored, and the outburst proved to be only the beginning.

The Raiders went on to score 27 points in victories over the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After getting shut out by the Green Bay Packers, the Raiders scored 33 against the Denver Broncos in their regular-season finale, then scored 42 last week in beating Denver in the first round of the playoffs.

Hostetler, finally recovered from a series of injuries, has the passing game operating at peak efficiency.

In the last two games, Hostetler has thrown for 604 yards and six touchdowns. Brown, the star receiver, caught 14 passes in the two games for 259 yards and three touchdowns.

And even the running game, a weak link all season, has come around. Before the regular-season finale, the Raiders had rushed for 122 yards in the previous three games.

But they ran for 94 yards two weeks ago against the Broncos and 136 yards last Sunday.

And each time, the Raiders got their biggest chunk of yardage from a source they hadn’t counted on for much of the season. Two weeks ago, their leading rusher was Ty Montgomery, who gained 44 yards after having been used sparingly, if at all, for much of the season. Last week, their leading rusher was Napoleon McCallum, who gained 81 yards and ran for three touchdowns, equaling his season total a mere six weeks after an appendectomy.

But when it comes to offensive numbers, the Bills can match figures with anybody.

This wasn’t a typical Buffalo year in terms of offense. The Bills failed to lead the AFC in points for the first time since 1988. But they got hot at the end, winning their last four regular-season games, including a 47-34 victory over the Miami Dolphins, to finish the season 12-4.

And this is the Bills’ time of year. Yes, they have lost the last three Super Bowls, but they have had to win every AFC postseason game they’ve been in over that span to get that far.

In all, Buffalo has won seven consecutive AFC playoff games, and six in a row at Rich Stadium. The last time the Bills lost a playoff game at home, the opponent was the Kansas City Chiefs and the date was Jan. 1, 1967.

One of those Buffalo playoff victories was the 51-3 destruction of the Raiders in the 1991 AFC title game, a game that still has some in silver and black shaking their heads.

The Bills played only one postseason game at Rich Stadium last season, but that one left everybody shaking their heads, believers as well as nonbelievers.

Trailing the Houston Oilers in the third quarter of their first playoff game of last season, 35-3, the Bills pulled off the biggest comeback in NFL history by scoring five touchdowns in the second half, three of them in just more than four minutes, en route to a 41-38 overtime victory.

But the weather figures to exert its own unavoidable influence on today’s game.

Both teams have had some practice under these conditions. Buffalo played the New York Jets here three weeks ago and won, 16-14, in weather that, considering the wind-chill factor, dropped to 28 below zero.

The same day, the Raiders were in Green Bay, where they didn’t fare as well. Playing in wind-chill-factored minus 22 degrees, the Raiders were shut out, 28-0, playing on a field that more closely resembled a sheet of ice. The Raider offensive line gave up eight sacks and Hostetler wound up in the hospital with a concussion.

The Raiders also lost a cold-weather game in Cincinnati this season to the Bengals, who were 0-10 at the time, and hung on to win a cold-weather game in Chicago only because usually reliable Kevin Butler missed two short field-goal attempts for the Bears in the closing minutes.

The only cold-weather game the Raiders have won this season was here, but the temperature that day was 37 degrees, balmy compared to what is expected today.

If the wind and cold blunt the passing game today, this battle will be won on the ground, where McCallum, Montgomery and fullback Steve Smith will be matched up against Thurman Thomas, the AFC rushing leader with 1,315 yards, and Kenneth Davis.

“The weather is the same for both sides,” Buffalo linebacker Darryl Talley said.

That’s what the Raiders keep telling themselves.

Raider Notes

Receiver-return man Rocket Ismail, who sat out last week’s game and most of the previous game because of a sprained neck, will play. . . . The Bills have no serious injuries. . . . The local television blackout was lifted Friday when six corporations bought out the remaining tickets. Five thousand of the 80,290 seats in Rich Stadium had been unsold as of Friday morning.

The Blue Zone

According to a National Weather Service advisory for the Buffalo area, “All travelers should exercise caution.”

It was nice enough not to add, “This means you, Raiders.”

The temperature for today’s playoff game at Rich Stadium is expected to be between zero and five degrees and winds of 15 to 30 m.p.h. could produce wind-chill readings equivalent to 20 to 40 below zero. To make things worse, snow showers are expected.