Raiders Prove Better by Four Feet : Pro football: Broncos find the final yard most difficult, Jaeger kicks five field goals to lead L.A. to a 23-13 victory over Denver, which plays without Elway.

One yard.

That was the difference between the Raiders and the Denver Broncos on Sunday. And it might well prove to be the difference between going into the postseason and going home.

One yard.

That’s all that stood between the Broncos and a chance to get into the end zone and back into Sunday’s game at the Coliseum on two separate occasions. That and Chester McGlockton and Jerry Ball and Patrick Bates and Winston Moss and Albert Lewis and Aundray Bruce and the rest of a defensive unit that played with as much emotion as it has demonstrated all season in two memorable goal line stands.

One yard.

That’s how close Denver came to perhaps winning a game it was forced to play without quarterback John Elway, who spent the afternoon on the sidelines because of a strained left knee.

Instead, on a day when the Raider offense was less than efficient, the team rode the hot foot of Jeff Jaeger, who kicked a club-record five field goals, and its immovable defense to a 23-13 victory before a crowd of 60,016.

As a result, the Raiders improve to 8-6, moving them one game behind the AFC West-leading San Diego Chargers and onto firmer footing in their bid for a wild-card playoff berth. The Broncos fall a game behind at 7-7.

When the Raiders lined up in their own end zone to hold off the Broncos, who were being led by backup quarterback Hugh Millen, there wasn’t any dramatic speech in the huddle about slamming the door on the opposition.

“It wasn’t something that needed to be said,” Raider linebacker Greg Biekert said. “Everybody on the defense had the attitude that they (the Broncos) were not going to make it. We knew and they knew it.”

A lot of people might have figured there was no way the Broncos were going to win when it was announced that Elway would serve as the third quarterback Sunday, and probably wouldn’t be used even in an emergency.

The Raider coaches, perhaps fearing a natural letdown, didn’t even inform their players.

“The coaches didn’t even mention it,” Bates said. “I thought he was going to play all week. But it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t a big deal to us.”

Besides, the Raiders had bigger concerns. Like the malfunctioning of their offense. Like the never-ending parade of flags that seem to wave in their direction whenever they take the field.

The Raiders began play with 128 penalties this season, putting them within striking distance of the league record of 149, held by the Houston Oilers.

They also were coming off a performance in which they had been called for 17 penalties against the Chargers to tie the Raider record.

They weren’t able to reach those heights Sunday. But they were called for a dozen penalties for 81 yards.

It was shaping up as another frustrating afternoon for the Raiders.

All they had to show for the first half against a team sputtering badly without Elway, its main spark plug, was two Jaeger field goals, from 44 and 29 yards.

That left the Broncos with a chance to take the lead at intermission with their final drive of the half despite the fact that they hadn’t yet made it into Raider territory and Millen had completed only two passes for 12 yards.

But on that final drive, the Broncos got down to the Raider six-yard line on a 35-yard pass from Millen to Shannon Sharpe, who finished as the game’s leading receiver with nine catches for 89 yards.

On first and goal, Denver running back Reggie Rivers, in for Leonard Russell who was knocked out of the game in the second quarter because of a neck injury, was thrown for a four-yard loss by McGlockton.

Seemingly determined to not do anything the easy way, the Raiders then committed back-to-back penalties--by Bates and Moss--to move the Broncos to the one-yard line.

Then:

--On first down, Millen threw incomplete.

--On second down, Rivers lost a yard, tackled by Ball and linebacker Rob Fredrickson.

--On third down, Millen threw incomplete.

Jason Elam then salvaged what could be salvaged by kicking a 20-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the half.

But the Raiders had made a statement. In the second half, they would put an exclamation point on it.

Jaeger extended the Raider lead to 9-3 with a 47-yard field goal on the Raiders’ first drive of the third quarter after a Bronco fumble by Derrick Clark.

Then Denver took its best shot.

Starting on their own 25-yard line, the Broncos drove back down to familiar territory, the Raider one-yard line.

This time, from the one:

--On first down, Rivers tried the middle, but was stopped by Biekert.

--On second down, Rivers tried the left side, but was stopped by Bates, Biekert and Lewis.

--On third down, Rivers tried the left side again, but was met by a wall of opposition led by Bruce, Fredrickson, Ball, Moss and Harrison, Rivers thrown all the way back to the four-yard line.

In reality, there was still plenty of time to play.

Emotionally, however, the Raiders had won.

Elam kicked a 21-yard field goal to keep Denver close at 9-6.

But then Jaeger added his fourth field goal, a 30-yarder, Hostetler finally got his offensive unit into the end zone by throwing a five-yard touchdown pass to Harvey Williams, and Jaeger broke the team field-goal mark, held by Mike Mercer and George Blanda (three times,) with a 28-yarder.

“I’m glad it came on a win,” said Jaeger of his record-breaking effort. “It was kind of fun.”

It wasn’t much fun for the Broncos, who lost for the eighth time in a row at the Coliseum and the 11th time in their last 12 meetings with the Raiders.

The Broncos played without their star quarterback, they played without safety Steve Atwater, who sat out because of a hamstring injury, and they played more than half the game without Russell, who leads Denver with nine touchdowns.

Yet with all their problems, the Broncos might have made a game of it if they could have gotten only one more yard.

Raider Notes

The Raiders held the Broncos to 63 yards rushing. . . . Coach Art Shell replaced right tackle Greg Skrepenak, who was ineffective, with Robert Jenkins in the second quarter.