Raiders Earn Spot in Layoffs : Coliseum Becomes a Wasteland

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Coliseum, not a Raider was stirring in the whole mausoleum. Eliminated and humiliated, this shell of a team coached by Art Shell could brag about leading the league in nothing but penalties and fan arrests, because the Raiders crumbled in their final game precisely the way a Kansas City player said they would.

“Dave Szott accused us of self-destructing, and he was absolutely right,” Raider lineman Greg Skrepenak said after Saturday’s 19-9 surrender. “Merry Christmas, Kansas City.”

A total loss, this Raider season was, not unlike the quake-struck crib in which they play. With one of the great wastes of talent in NFL history, the Raiders--projected by Jimmy Johnson, Mike Ditka and experts coast to coast as a Super Bowl team--lost five times by 10 points or more, without a major injury except to Napoleon McCallum, and missed the playoffs. Humbug on this whole team.

Weird might not be the word to use to describe what happened to this team. With Jeff Hostetler at quarterback and no fewer than four of football’s fastest receivers, the Raiders topped 24 points twice . Their fifth-leading scorer for the season was Terry McDaniel, who plays defense.

“Yes, it has been a weird year,” said Vince Evans, whose instant-offense touchdown pass to Alexander Wright was as good as Saturday’s game got. “And I think everyone in this locker room is kind of scratching their heads right now, wondering what happened. Weird is a correct word to use, I would say.”

We can think of others, but it’s Christmas.

Seldom, though, have we been exposed to a football team that failed so miserably to get out of its own way. Whether it was calling a terrible play near the Kansas City goal line or tripping someone in their own end zone for a safety, the Raiders were their usual uncoordinated selves, right to the end. And if Al Davis doesn’t do something drastic, then he doesn’t want to win as much as we always thought he did.

The Raiders can scream and complain all they want about the non-call that cost them seven points, seconds before halftime. Yes, Hostetler did take a Neil Smith paw to the helmet, and no, Hostetler doesn’t draw a roughing-the-passer penalty as frequently as other NFL quarterbacks do. But poor officiating didn’t make the Raiders 9-7.

“No flag!” Coach Marty Schottenheimer could be seen shouting on the Chiefs’ sideline after that back-breaking interception runback, and even more amazing was that there was no flag thrown against the Raiders. Beyond their nine infractions that broke the NFL’s record for penalties in a season, the Raiders were even offside on Joe Montana’s first touchdown pass. Doesn’t anybody on this team know the rules?

Not a thing went smoothly Saturday, unless you want to count Kelsey Grammer’s national anthem. Montana put the Chiefs in the end zone before the cheerleaders had time to straighten out their little red Santa caps. No one from the Raider defense was even in the picture on a 19-inch TV screen. Montana had so much time, he lobbed the ball about as high as a Goodyear blimp.

“Things looked bleak from the get-go,” said the Raiders’ Max Montoya, who announced his retirement.

“K.C. came to play ball,” teammate Derrick Hoskins said.

Heaven knows what L.A. came to do, except false-start its way into oblivion. When a team rushes for 53 yards, what can it expect? Only this time there was no passing game to make up the difference, and once again Hostetler ignored most of his wide receivers other than Tim Brown, who seems to be the only one he trusts.

Because wasn’t it interesting that the instant Evans reported into action, he propelled a 65-yard touchdown pass to Alexander Wright? We say interesting because afterward, Evans acknowledged that the primary receiver on the play--which was sent in from the sideline--was Brown.

“The safety was sleeping a little bit, and Alexander with his awesome speed just ran by everybody,” Evans said. “We felt this season with the kind of guys we had, guys with world-class speed, that if you’d throw it long six or seven times a game, they might come up with three of them. This one was called for Timmy to run an ‘out’ route, but Alexander just blew by everybody.”

Yeah. And caught his 16th pass in 16 games.

Waste, waste, waste. Where did all the Raider raw speed go? How could James Jett catch only 15 passes all season? How could Rocket Ismail catch 32, fewer than six Chief receivers caught? Hey, it’s not as if the Raiders had the world’s greatest rushing attack and didn’t go to their receivers much. They went to their receivers constantly--well, one of them.

And so ends 1994, a low point in Los Angeles sports history. The eagerly awaited Raider season turned out to be a bust, and, as with the Rams, Lakers, Clippers, Kings and our unemployed baseball players, anyone waiting for the playoffs to begin can keep right on waiting. We went from tinsel town to death valley, practically overnight. Merry Christmas, Kansas City.