Raiders Shut Up Critics by Shutting Down Bills : Pro football: Defense makes the big plays in 20-3 victory over Buffalo. Marinovich has two touchdown passes.

By STEVE SPRINGER

Oct. 12, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The media called them embarrassing.

A network commentator referred to them as the laughingstock of the league.

The New York Giants labeled them ducks.

The once-proud Raiders weren’t only losing games. They were losing something even more precious--their mystique.

Respect had turned into ridicule. They were still being called the NFL’s bad boys, but for a different reason.

Not Sunday.

For at least one afternoon, they were the Raiders of old, terrorizing and dominating an opponent as they whipped the Buffalo Bills, 20-3, before a Coliseum crowd of 52,287.

And this wasn’t just any opponent. This was a team that came into the Coliseum leading the league in total offense. This was a team with the AFC’s highest-rated quarterback in Jim Kelly, the league’s top touchdown producer in running back Thurman Thomas and the league’s top pass catcher in Andre Reed.

No matter.

The Raiders, invoking the proudtradition of Lyle Alzado and Jack Tatum, of John Matuszak and Ted Hendricks, shut down the Bills.

“They said we were the laughingstock of the league last week,” Raider defensive lineman Nolan Harrison said. “What are they going to say now?”

The defensive heroes were everywhere.

Defensive lineman Howie Long came to work not knowing how long he could perform because of a sore hamstring. Defensive back Dan Land took the field not knowing how much he would play in his role as a reserve. Linebacker Aaron Wallace came into the game hoping to make up for last week, when his ineffectiveness resulted in Anthony Bell taking his place on first and often second down.

There were other Raiders with something to prove Sunday. Defensive lineman Greg Townsend has had to listen for weeks to the trade rumors he has heard since arriving overweight after holding out for the entire preseason. Defensive back Ronnie Lott has had to listen to questions about the game against the Kansas City Chiefs two weeks ago when he was pushed around on national television.

But all of them did their parts Sunday to put menace and mystique back in the Raiders.

Long, sore hamstring and all, had two of the five Raider sacks. Anthony Smith also had two, with Aundray Bruce getting the other.

“I was concerned about the hamstring,” Long said, “but I figured, if it goes, it goes.”

It didn’t.

What did go was cornerback Lionel Washington’s groin muscle. He pulled it in the first quarter, forcing him to leave the game.

But Land made the most of the opportunity, playing a strong game in place of Washington.

At one point, Land came up to Washington on the sideline and asked, “How am I doing?”

Washington replied, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Time and again the Bills seemed like a slumbering giant, about to awaken and wreak havoc as they have done to so many other teams.

But time and again, the Raiders responded with a big defensive play.

In the first quarter, with the Raiders leading, 7-0, on a two-yard touchdown pass from Todd Marinovich to Eric Dickerson, the Bills answered with their first substantial drive of the game.

They got a break on a fourth-and-nine from their own 10.

Chris Mohr, back to punt for Buffalo, saw the Raiders’ Elvis Patterson racing in from the right side a blink-of-the-eye after the snap from center. This one had block written allover it.

But Mohr rewrote the script. He stepped out of the way of the onrushing Patterson and raced up field for 11 yards to get the first down and keep the drive alive.

A couple of weeks ago, that might have been enough to sink the Raiders.

But Sunday they held firm, holding the Bills to a 25-yard field goal by Steve Christie.

On the next Bills’ drive, it was cornerback Terry McDaniel’s turn. With Buffalo threatening on the Raider 21, he came up with an interception, the only one thrown by Kelly, to turn the Bills away.

On Buffalo’s final drive of the half, it was Harrison’s turn. He stepped up, and up, going high enough to block a 36-yard field goal attempt by Christie.

By intermission the Raiders had increased their lead to 17-3, Marinovich’s 52-yard touchdown pass to Tim Brown being followed by a 45-yard field goal by JeffJaeger.

Jaeger added a 36-yarder in the third quarter.

And the defense did the rest.

In the fourth quarter, the Bills had two more bona fide shots at the Raider end zone.

On fourth and two from the Raider three, Kelly took the snap, spotted tight end Pete Metzelaars open for an instant just acrossthe goal line and fired theball.

But Lott arrived at the same instant as the ball and separated it from Metzelaars’ hands with a stinging hit, one of several Lott delivered Sunday.

On the Bills’ last-gasp drive, Kelly attempted another fourth-down pass from the Raider 16 only to have Wallace bat it down.

So suddenly, the Bills, who lost last week to the Miami Dolphins, 37-10, have slipped in the AFC to 4-2. And the Raiders, who beat the Giants last week, have crept up a bit at 2-4. “It’s just one game,” Long cautioned.

But it was a game the Raiders, who had lost four in a row to the Bills, desperately needed to re-establish their shattered playoff hopes--and their tattered mystique.