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Seahawks Befuddled by Huddle : Pro football: Raiders go without one as Williams rushes for a career high and passes for touchdown in 34-14 win.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The empty seats in the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum indicated the locals had spoken: The Raiders were not worth the hefty price of admission.

But will they reconsider now?

The Raiders crushed the Seattle Seahawks, 34-14, on Sunday, just as they had manhandled the Jets last week and the Eagles the week before that. They unveiled a no-huddle offense and improved their record to 5-1, with running back Harvey Williams both running and passing for touchdowns and gaining a career-high 160 yards in 19 carries.

A $700,000 marketing campaign had failed to generate substantial ticket sales and had forced the third game of the Raiders’ return to Oakland to be blacked out locally. Repeated announcements begging fans at the game to purchase public seat licenses had threatened to take the edge off Raider intimidation, but an announced crowd of 50,213 demanded domination, and got it.

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“Believe it or not, we can get better too,” said Tim Brown, Raider wide receiver, who caught five passes for 143 yards, including a career-best 80-yard touchdown pass play from quarterback Jeff Hostetler.

The Raiders, who scored a combined 129 points against the Seahawks, Jets and Eagles--the most in franchise history over a three-game stretch, stopped Seattle on all 11 third-down attempts and closed the game with a successful four-play goal-line defensive stand.

“I don’t know how many people were there, but it sounded like 60,000 to 70,000 as opposed to the 10 people who came to our games in L.A.,” said Williams, who is trying to become the first Raider back since Marcus Allen in 1985 to gain 1,000 yards in a season. “The players feed off of that. We’re home, and I don’t think there is a team out there that can run us out of our own stadium.”

Seattle (2-3) had upset designs, but with 13:51 to play, the Seahawks were looking at a 34-7 deficit. “They just kicked our rear ends,” Coach Dennis Erickson said.

The Raiders used a no-huddle offense for the first time this season, and it allowed Hostetler, who completed 20 of 33 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns, to call his own plays.

“We’ve been working on it for quite a while,” Hostetler said. “We just thought this was a good time to bring it out. It’s not necessarily a hurry-up offense, but it allows you to step it up a little bit if you think the defense is getting tired.”

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Seattle, which had fought back to get within six points of the Raiders with a 65-yard scoring march to open the third quarter, could not keep up with Oakland’s relentless offense.

Williams’ 25-yard run through a gasping defense pushed Oakland ahead, 20-7, and then, on the Raiders’ next drive, Williams took a handoff from Hostetler, ran right, stopped and passed left to tight end Andrew Glover for a 13-yard touchdown.

“What you try and do with the no-huddle is choke the life out of them after pounding them and pounding them,” Williams said. “You got to love it. You got to love it when you see those big guys huffing and puffing. And you have to take advantage of that.”

The Raiders opened the game in conventional fashion and went nowhere on offense. They settled for a 37-yard field goal by Jeff Jaeger in the final minutes of the first quarter and then called on Jaeger for a 24-yarder to take a 6-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

Seattle, meanwhile, could not get running back Chris Warren, who had rushed for more than 100 yards the last two weeks, going. And so the game dragged on until Brown busted loose for the 80-yard touchdown.

“He was the third receiver on the play,” Raider Coach Mike White said. “That’s some progression to go through, but it was a good read by Hostetler. And when you get a gifted athlete like Tim Brown free like that, you’re going to see some big plays.”

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Brown, chased by overmatched linebacker Winston Moss, a former Raider, left him behind and then put a move on safety Eugene Robinson that ought to give him cause to consider retirement. Robinson failed to place a hand on Brown, who then outraced cornerback Carlton Gray to the end zone.

“Early in the year, I was running stuff to basically just get first downs,” said Brown, who became the sixth receiver in Raider history to score 40 touchdowns. “Now, I’m getting the chance to do something in the open field, and that’s a situation I love to be in.”

The Seahawks struck back with a 35-yard touchdown pass play from Rick Mirer to rookie wide receiver Joey Galloway in the fourth quarter, and tried to score again after moving to the Raider one-yard line in the closing minutes of the game.

But the Raider defense stopped Warren for no gain, shut down fullback Steve Smith for no gain, threw Warren for a two-yard loss and then sent everyone home happy with linebacker Mike Jones’ interception on fourth down.

“We’re on a roll,” Raider linebacker Pat Swilling said. “On that final series, we were trying to send a message to everyone. They wouldn’t have got in to the end zone if they had 20 plays.

“We’re playing good, no doubt about that, but we’re going to get even better than that.”

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