They’re One Tackle Away From a Successful Start

DENVER —  One blitz. That was the ballgame--one blitz. Terry McDaniel plants John Elway on his pants and that’s that. The Raiders go 1-0. They send 75,418 Rocky Mountaineers to their cars squawking about one of the most miserable showings by Elway and the Denver Broncos since, well . . . pick a Super Bowl.

But the quarterback sidesteps. And the cornerback tackles thin air--mile-high thin air. And, with 1:38 remaining in Sunday’s NFL season opener, Elway hand-delivers a pass to some rookie, a certain Arthur Marshall who suddenly finds himself more alone than MacCaulay Culkin at Christmas. The play covers 48 yards and it puts the Raiders eight yards away from being 0-1 instead of 1-0.

They proceed to lose a game that their defense dominated for nearly three hours.

On film this week, the Raiders will see themselves as they are and as they have been--deliciously vicious on defense, indescribably disorganized on offense. They will see their quarterback yield possession of the football in all possible ways--be stripped of it, throw it carelessly, dribble it off his own knee. But they will see Eric Dickerson and Nick Bell run the ball with an authority that deserves applause.

Replays of the defense will show Anthony Smith running over gigantic Bronco rookie Russell Freeman with no more difficulty than a truck crossing a speed bump. They will show the line getting along nicely until Greg Townsend and Chester McGlockton show up. They will show Riki Ellison in the right place at the right time, Eddie Anderson squeezing an interception that should have sealed the victory and Winston Moss sending Elway into the sod like a rolling stone.

But then, the blitz.

Second down, 10 yards to go: Denver is on a treadmill at its own 44 with no timeouts remaining and not much hope remaining except to get the erratic David Treadwell into his field-goal range, whatever that may be.

For three quarters, Elway passed for fewer yards than he did against Cleveland in that one famous drive. The Broncos’ offense was so pathetic that, by halftime, Elway personally had passed for nine whole yards. The Raiders had 15 first downs at halftime, the Broncos one . Jay Schroeder gained as many yards by himself on the ground than Elway had gained in the air. Derrick Gainer-- Derrick Gainer? --nearly outgained Gaston Green.

Elway was atrocious.

“But I’ve seen guys go 0 for 15, then burn you,” Raider safety Ronnie Lott said. “Like Larry Bird, missing all day and then making a big shot.”

Desperate to do something right, Elway went bombs-away on first down, telling Marshall to go as deep as he could go. Torin Dorn was with the rookie every step of the way, stretching his 6-foot body about a half-mile high to bat the ball to the ground.

Elway was ripe for the blitz. Second down, 1:38 left? Hey, unlikely Denver Coach Dan Reeves would be sending in any running plays. Reeves calls the plays for his veteran quarterback, including the idiotic deep pattern on third down that had resulted in Anderson’s interception at the goal line with 5:01 to play, ruining the Broncos’ chances of tying the score with a fairly easy field goal.

Blitz him. Put the quarterback on his back at somewhere around the Bronco 35 and he would be facing third-and-long, needing to go deep to keep the drive alive, much less take Treadwell into field-goal range. Blitz him before he can pull off one of his patented game-saving rallies.

“We rolled the dice that we would be able to make one more big play,” Lott said.

But Howie Long, who has seen enough of Elway over the years to fear him--and heard enough out of Elway lately to be a little miffed at him--saw an entire evening’s splendid work go right down the Colorado drain.

“We called a great blitz in a great situation,” Long said. “But he’s a very elusive guy. Elway sees pressure coming. You say, ‘I got him, I got him, big hit, big hit.’ He gets away.”

Long wouldn’t have minded putting the big hit on Elway personally, having been aware of some remarks about the deterioration of the Raiders made earlier the week on a radio program that had gotten back to him. “I don’t know where John’s getting this trash talk all of a sudden,” Long said. “Maybe he’s having imaginary conversations with himself.”

The assignment to put the Broncos out of their misery fell principally to McDaniel, who crept forward from his left-cornerback position and made a beeline for Elway the instant the ball was snapped. He had him. McDaniel had him. Watching the film this week will be a painful experience. He will see Elway swivel his hips ever so slightly, sending the cornerback face-first into nothing but green grass.

Then the pass to Marshall, wide, wide open. And Anderson catching Marshall from behind, eight yards from the end zone. Which led to a pass-interference call on McDaniel inside the end zone. Which led to an Elway fakeout and one-yard ramble by Reggie Rivers that made the Raiders an 0-1 team with a reckless offense instead of a 1-0 team with a wrecking-crew defense.