Raiders Behind 8-8 Ball : Pro football: Their 8-2 start turns into .500 finish and come-from-ahead loss to Broncos knocks them out of playoffs.

Dressed in their finest black Christmas apparel, Raider fans dispersed into the festive night grumbling about penalties, PSLs and their team’s unexpected, but impending long winter’s nap.

For the sixth consecutive week, the Raiders failed to win, and for the second consecutive year, they fell on their facemasks in the season finale with a chance to advance to the playoffs.

“I hope I get me a paper bag for Christmas to cover my head,” one unhappy spectator groused.

Others offered more colorful unprintable exclamation points to the Raiders’ Great Collapse, which included Sunday’s 31-28 pratfall to the Denver Broncos. Loose translation: “Bah humbug.”

Or, “just unbelievable,” as linebacker Pat Swilling remarked. “It’s unbelievable to be in a situation like this where we control our destiny and can’t go out and play hard enough and intelligent enough to win.

“I think we had some guys who were more concerned with going home for Christmas. We have to weed those people out.”

Raider fans, who were filled with great expectations, sounded cheated after paying as much as $60 a ticket and thousands more for personal seat licenses in the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum to watch a team unable to close the deal.

It’s a wonderful life, of course, if you were a Dolphin supporter, because when the Raiders (8-8) squandered their 11-point second-half lead to the Broncos (8-8) and finally lost, it boosted Miami into the playoffs as a wild card.

“We started off this season 8-2 and it’s just like what happened today,” tackle Greg Skrepenak said. “We go up on Denver with two touchdowns in the second half, we’re feeling good and then disaster strikes.

“I mean we lost six games in a row and that’s ridiculous. I can’t ever remember losing six games in a row at anything. And the sad thing about it is we only won two conference games. If you only win two conference games you can forget about going to the playoffs.”

If you get tagged with nine penalties you can also forget about going to the playoffs. Throw in two lost fumbles, 12 defenders on the field to try to block a field-goal attempt and a defense that allowed Denver quarter John Elway to throw for 225 yards in the second half, and aren’t these the same Raiders of a year ago in Los Angeles with Art Shell in command?

“I think some of the players on this team have to look at themselves in the mirror and really ask the question if they gave all they had the last six weeks,” wide receiver Tim Brown said. “If enough guys can answer yes, then we must be doing something wrong as a coaching staff.

“But I’ll tell you what, when you look at what we have been doing, penalties and all that stuff, that’s not the coaches.”

The Raiders went into this game knowing Kansas City had defeated Seattle, 26-3, thereby giving Oakland a playoff date in San Diego next Sunday with a victory over the Broncos, a team it had whipped in eight of its last 10 meetings.

The Broncos were out of the playoffs before the opening kickoff, and appeared willing to roll over for the Raiders’ benefit. The Raiders quickly took a 7-0 lead with quarterback Billy Joe Hobert throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Daryl Hobbs in the first quarter.

“We didn’t put them away,” Hobbs said. “We let them hang around and have a reason to keep playing hard.”

The Broncos came back to nab a 17-14 halftime advantage, but Hobert went to Brown twice for scores in the early minutes of the third quarter to post a 28-17 lead.

And so it stayed at the end of the third quarter. The Raiders were 15 minutes away from advancing to the postseason.

“Any time you got John Elway on the field, I don’t care if you have a 40-point lead,” Raider running back Harvey Williams said, “you still got to keep scoring points. He can come right back and bite you in the butt.”

For the 26th time in his career, Elway pulled his team from behind, first setting up a Jason Elam 27-yard field goal, and then throwing a four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ed McCaffrey. Down 28-26, Elway then called his own number for the two-point dive into the end zone to tie the game with 5:46 remaining.

The Raiders, who alternated Hobert and Vince Evans in place of Jeff Hostetler, then contributed to the Elway legend by promptly turning the ball back to Denver. Wide receiver James Jett, who would later have no comment about his performance, caught a pass from Evans and took it to the Denver 28 before fumbling.

The Broncos took possession with 3:52 left, and then Elway worked to position the ball for a decisive Elam field-goal attempt. Elway moved the Broncos to the Raiders’ 19-yard line, and with 48 seconds remaining in the game, Elam, the AFC’s Pro Bowl representative, put it just inside the left upright from 37 yards.

“I think there is just a feeling of emptiness that the finality of the season causes,” Raider Coach Mike White said. “We’re in a tough division and we just couldn’t get done. I’m bitterly disappointed; it’s just hard to put my finger on the reason.”