Shell: Not as Bad as It Looked : Pro football: After 44-14 rout, coach says Raiders simply didn’t rise to the 49ers’ challenge.

Throughout the exhibition season, the Raiders pointed to their Monday night season opener against San Francisco as an opportunity to show the nation that they were as good as their hype.

Raider fans could not wait until Labor Day to see their team’s talents unleashed on the 49ers in a Super Bowl preview.

So what happened?

“We aren’t as bad as we looked,” Raider Coach Art Shell said Tuesday, in the wake of a 44-14 loss. “We just didn’t rise to the occasion. When you play great teams, you have to meet the challenge. It’s not that we didn’t want to, but we just didn’t.”

Against the 49ers, the Raiders were hammered in almost every area imaginable, suffering their worst opening-day loss since Houston beat them, 47-17, in 1991.

The Raider defense was almost nonexistent, San Francisco rolling up 448 yards and 24 first downs. The 49ers scored every time they needed to as they went the first half without a punt, while picking up first downs on three fourth-down plays.

Against the run, the Raiders did slow Ricky Watters, limiting him to 37 yards in 18 carries, but quarterback Steve Young scrambled for 51 yards in five carries.

“I won’t dissect our football team and I won’t get into any particular area,” Shell said. “It’s tough to pick out anyone or any position when you don’t play well.”

One area that didn’t get the job done was the Raiders’ pass defense. Jerry Rice and Young put themselves on highlight films all over the country.

Lionel Washington and Patrick Bates had their chance when they chased Rice on a 69-yard touchdown pass play in the first quarter. Albert Lewis and Eddie Anderson then had their turn in the fourth quarter when Rice set an NFL record with his record-setting 127th touchdown on a 38-yard catch.

The Raiders could make excuses by claiming that their secondary was not at full strength as Washington played with an injured hamstring and Bates was playing only because starter Derrick Hoskins was sidelined because of a knee injury.

That, however, would be wrong because no matter who was on the field, the Raiders played like a team still waiting for the season to start.

“We just seemed a little bit out of sync for whatever reason,” Shell said.

And if the Raiders struggled on defense, their offense played at an even lower level.

The running game was virtually nonexistent, 20 carries netting only 34 yards.

“It wasn’t so much of what they were doing,” San Francisco linebacker Ricky Jackson said. “It was just that we have a defense full of Pro Bowlers. It’s like we have an all-star team out there.”

Jackson, who played with New Orleans last season, Richard Dent, Ken Norton Jr., Gary Plummer and Toi Cook are all new to the 49er defense, which seemed to catch the Raiders off guard with its aggressiveness.

By staying in the rushing lanes, San Francisco’s defensive front gave quarterback Jeff Hostetler problems by restricting his scrambling and keeping someone in his face for most of the game.

This tactic was effective, since the 49ers were determined not to give up deep passes to the Raiders’ speedy receivers, Tim Brown, Alexander Wright, James Jett and Rocket Ismail.

“You see those guys running by people, you have to try and keep them in front of you,” 49er safety Tim McDonald said. “You want to make them try and beat you by running routes and not just going long.”

The Raiders did not help themselves by dropping some passes when the game was still on the line. First fullback Tom Rathman dropped a screen pass on the Raiders’ first possession, then Wright dropped one on a deep out pattern, and Brown was stripped on another pass on the second drive.

“That was about as bad a game as the Raiders have played,” said Brown, who caught five passes for 42 yards. “We didn’t do enough things right. You’ve got to give them credit for taking away the deep pass.”

The Raiders will have a lot of work to do with a shorter than normal work week before playing the Seattle Seahwaks in their home opener Sunday.

“We know that we didn’t play well, but there’s sunshine today . . . it’s not the end of the world,” Shell said. “We just have to do better the next time out, and I’m sure that we will.”