Chiefs Earn Glory Again at the Raiders’ Expense

So much for the Oakland Raiders’ “return to glory,” gone in a vertical flash with, of all people, an Al Davis kind of bad guy supposedly in Andre Rison, going deep and delivering the flattening blow Monday night.

Only 58 seconds to go to win a home opener at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and all the Raiders had to do was keep the Kansas City Chiefs from moving 80 yards with no timeouts remaining.

But the Chiefs would require only 55 seconds, six plays and a final 33-yard touchdown toss from quarterback Elvis Grbac over two flailing Raider defenders to Rison to steal a 28-27 victory.

“Right now it’s my greatest moment in football,” Grbac said.

“Andre made a great move. I couldn’t believe the safety sat down on the play. Andre made a second move and I was in shock. I just wanted to get the ball up as soon as I could.”

Looking more like Joe Montana than Steve Bono, Grbac had come from the 49ers like his predecessors as part of the Chiefs’ off-season offensive makeover. The Chiefs could not locate the end zone last week in a loss to Denver, but the Raiders were a more obliging lot, and now the legend of Elvis can begin to take root in middle America.

The tradition continues here, meanwhile, the Raiders finding a way to lose--the 14th time in the ‘90s in 16 meetings with the Chiefs--and now they stand 0-2 in the Joe Bugel era, not a whole lot different than the Mike White, Mike Shanahan or Art Shell reign of mistakes.

Bugel, experienced now at losing after going 20-44 as coach of the Arizona Cardinals, failed to appear for a postgame news conference. At the same time the Raiders closed their locker room, the players--with the exception of cornerback Albert Lewis--finding a back door to escape any inquisition.

“This hurts a lot--it’s disappointing . . . “ Lewis said. “There were a lot of emotions poured out in the locker room.”

The answers should not have been that elusive. Staked to a 27-13 lead, the Raiders simply collapsed under the direction of new quarterback Jeff George, just as most NFL students of George had predicted.

Bothered by pressure, George threw a shovel pass up for grabs in the third quarter to avoid being sacked and Kansas City cornerback Darren Anderson returned it 55 yards for a touchdown.

Under fire once more, and clinging now to a 27-22 lead, George again ducked for cover in the fourth quarter, but not before throwing the ball to Kansas City cornerback Dale Carter. The Raiders were forced to play on, and it appeared they would stave off ultimate humiliation for George in his Raider home debut because of Darrell Russell’s heroics.

Russell shredded the Kansas City offensive line and sacked Grbac for a 12-yard loss on third down with a little more than five minutes to play. All George had to do was grind on the Chiefs, hug the ground and run out the clock.

But with a little more than a minute to play, the Raiders could not close the deal. Forced to punt from the Kansas City 39-yard line, they kicked the ball into the end zone, bringing it out to the 20-yard line.

First down and Grbac went to Rison for 21 yards. All night long the Raiders could not find anyone to cover Rison, who savaged former Super Bowl most valuable player Larry Brown in the closing seconds of the first half to set up a 24-yard Pete Stoyanovich field goal with two seconds remaining that gave Kansas City a 13-10 halftime lead.

Breaking from the huddle with only 11 seconds to play, Rison took off running for the end zone, somehow leaving Terry McDaniel and Eric Turner behind, free to haul in Grbac’s well-aimed pass.

“It was a great throw by Elvis,” Rison said. “All the credit goes to Elvis and the offensive line.”

The play effectively gutted the Raiders two games into the season.

No longer did it matter that former Raider Marcus Allen had fumbled to set up a Kansas City score. No longer did it matter that George had thrown two touchdown passes to tight end Rickey Dudley or that Napoleon Kaufman had run 10 yards for another score.

All that mattered was that when it came down to making a commitment to the vertical passing game it was the Chiefs taking the bow.