Raiders Can Brag About Ex-Game

Oakland Raider linebacker William Thomas gave the Philadelphia Eagles some of the best years of his NFL career. They, in turn, gave him the boot.

So when Thomas made a crucial play Sunday, recovering an onside kick by Philadelphia and squelching any hopes of a comeback, he couldn’t resist flipping the ball toward the Eagle sideline.

“There you go,” he said. “You get the game ball.”

And the Raiders got the game, 20-10, dispelling any doubts they are the best team in the AFC, if not the league.

Even as the night turned teeth-chattering cold, the Raiders were in no rush to scurry to the warmth of the locker room. Many of them lingered on the Veterans Stadium turf after the game, shaking hands and posing for pictures. After all, their organization is loaded with former Philadelphia players and coaches, who wanted to bask in the sweet satisfaction of the moment.

There was Raider cornerback Eric Allen, who spent his first seven seasons with the Eagles, and Sunday helped limit them to 195 yards. And running back Charlie Garner, reborn with the Raiders after he was tossed in the discard pile by Philadelphia, then San Francisco. He scored Oakland’s first touchdown and finished with a game-high 77 yards in 21 carries.

“I told those guys a little bit before the game that we’re all just a bunch of guys that they didn’t want in Philadelphia,” said Raider Coach Jon Gruden, offensive coordinator for the Eagles from 1995 through ’98. “Let’s just go out there and play our best.”

It’s a stretch to say Philadelphia didn’t want Gruden; he left to become head coach of the Raiders. But he didn’t mind classifying himself as a gutsy little castoff. Anything to inspire his ex-Eagles.

Garner didn’t need the pep talk. He’s coming off consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and a trip to the 2000 Pro Bowl, yet he still felt a need to stick it to the Eagles. They released him after the ’98 season, reasoning Duce Staley was more reliable and less fumble prone.

“Redemption, finally,” Garner said. “The prodigal son has returned with a win. I talked to [cornerbacks] Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor at the Pro Bowl and told them we were coming in to win the football game. And that’s what we did.”

Although the Raiders (5-1) never poured on the points, they opened with Garner’s touchdown and slowly pulled away, taking a 10-0 lead, then 17-3, then 20-3. The Eagles (3-3) didn’t reach the end zone until Staley scored on a three-yard run with 2:28 remaining, and then had a failed onside kick.

Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb was sacked four times and never found his groove in an offense that was one for 11 in third-down conversions. Still, he earned the respect of the Raiders.

“He’s Houdini,” defensive tackle Darrell Russell said. “He slipped in and out of us all game. He did everything he can, but we contained him.”

McNabb might have been Houdini, but Raider quarterback Rich Gannon was the true escape artist. He slipped away from pressure and was sacked only once, despite Philadelphia’s constant blitzing.

It helped that Gannon’s receivers held onto the ball. That wasn’t always the case with the Eagles.

“We had too many dropped footballs,” said Coach Andy Reid, whose team had only 215 total yards and 13 first downs in a 9-7 victory over the New York Giants six days earlier. “All in all, there were too many mistakes.”

The trick for the Raiders will be maintaining their focus and momentum this week, as they prepare to host Denver on “Monday Night Football.” The Broncos are struggling, but they almost always give the Raiders problems.

By then, the Raiders should have running back Tyrone Wheatley back in the lineup. He sat out Sunday’s game because of a sore wrist and knee. Then again, they didn’t miss him much against the Eagles, thanks to understudies Garner, Randy Jordan (three carries for 45 yards) and Zack Crockett (17 for 47).

“Our offense converted a lot of third downs against a defense that has been No. 1 in the NFL and who we have unbelievable respect for,” Gruden said.

No doubt lots of Eagle fans have respect for Gruden, too, although they would never let him know it. Even when he was an Eagle assistant coach, he chose to stay in the press box, both for the view and the tranquility.

“When I first got here and Randall Cunningham was the quarterback, I was on the field for about my first and second games,” he said. “Couple players were yelling at me, I got a little sensitive, then I started hearing catcalls from the crowd. I said, ‘Man, I’ve got to get up in the box.”’

Those catcalls came again Sunday. But somehow, he didn’t mind.