Raiders Play a Team With a Good Memory : Broncos Can Hardly Wait for a Chance to Redeem Themselves

DENVER â€”  They’re hiding the women and children a little earlier in these parts this season, courtesy of the schedule which has presented the Raiders as an opening opponent for the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos are 2 1/2-point favorites. Who could ask for anything more?

One managing general partner, for sure.

“We’re the only AFC team to win the Super Bowl in the ‘80s,� Al Davis said last week. “And we’re the only AFC team in the West Division to start out on the road this year.

“So you know they’re keeping an eye out for us. They’re trying to help us. And it isn’t only this year. It’s a challenge we have to overcome.�

“They,� of course, are Davis’ friends in the NFL office who have dropped him into the midst of Broncomania, which is running at its usual 110-degree Raider-week fever pitch.

Rich Marotta, Raider radio announcer, did a guest spot on one of the seeming dozens of local Bronco talk shows and was introduced as “the announcer for the evil empire.�

Dennis Smith, the Broncos’ Pro Bowl strong safety from USC, broke his collarbone a week ago when he ran into the Rams’ Barry Redden. He’s preparing to play, anyway. Is this common?

“I don’t think so,� Smith said, laughing. “I’ll be a hero if we win.

“The only problem I can see is having the collarbone hit directly and caving in my chest or something.�

Oh.

Were it not for the rest of the Raiders’ early schedule, this game would mean a lot more to the Broncos, for whom this is must-win. Contenders are supposed to be able to beat their division rivals at home.

Beyond that, the Raiders are the merry band that broke their hearts last season with those two overtime victories, including the game here, which Denver led, 14-0.

“Being up, 14-0, and losing to the Raiders is something that’s haunted this football team all off-season,� Coach Dan Reeves said.

How can the Raiders match that kind of incentive? Their problem is that they must next travel to Washington to play the Redskins, another team that had double-figure victories and failed to make the playoffs. Then they will come home to play the New York Giants, who are favored in the NFC East.

They also have games in Dallas and Miami, as well as those perennial favorites, the Kingdome and Jack Murphy Stadium. A bad start would make this season an uphill fight.

This is also an intriguing test of how good these teams are.

Do the Broncos have any right recalling their 13-win season of ‘84, dreaming of a dynasty? Or are they just a nice, solid defensive team that holds opponents close until John Elway can think of something?

They tried to rebuild their running attack in camp, but it doesn’t seem to have improved.

“Not from preseason, no,� Reeves said. “We don’t have a Marcus Allen-type back right now. Our offensive line is probably more adept at pass protection than the running game right now.�

A team without a running game is a sitting duck for the kind of howling pass rush the Raiders can unleash. That the Broncos took only 38 sacks last season is probably a tribute to Elway’s wheels and Reeves’ brains.

With every month that passes, Elway is advertised as having finally become the all-universe quarterback everyone expected. And with every month that passes, it seems to be coming true.

The task has been to persuade Elway to play more with his eyes and his head than with that rifle arm and those swift legs. He was thought to have arrived by the second Raider game last season, but he threw three interceptions in that one, five the next week and finished with more interceptions than touchdown passes. Genius progresses according to its own timetable.

Reeves has been frustrated in his attempts to get help for Elway. A large rookie offensive tackle, Jim Juriga of Illinois, was lost with a knee injury after making the starting lineup. Last year’s No. 1 draft choice, halfback Steve Sewell of Oklahoma, is still considered a disappointment. If he’s a mistake, Sewell was one a lot of teams were ready to make. The Raiders also had him top-rated.

Reeves has one spectacular-looking success though, a deep threat to go along with the sure-handed Steve Watson. If the Raiders didn’t remember Vance Johnson from his rookie season, he set off alarm bells all over El Segundo last week with his 11-catch calling card against the Rams.

Johnson was introduced to another feature of Raider week, the pregame jousting in the papers with Lester Hayes.

Hayes last week declared: “We’re going to be laying fingerprints all over those guys’ anatomies. It’s academic.�

Johnson said he didn’t appreciate that.

“I want Hayes personally,� he told the Denver Post’s Joseph Sanchez. “One time last year he threw me down on the (Coliseum) running track. That won’t happen Sunday.

“Of course, we don’t have a track at Mile High Stadium.�

And it’s a test of the Raiders and Marc Wilson. For Wilson, this season almost certainly represents his last Raider chance. Skeptics abound, on the Raider roster and elsewhere.

In a surprise, one went public last week. That was Elway, who was asked about having almost become the Raider quarterback, and blurted out: “They need one, that’s for sure.�

Today will begin to tell what they’ll need and when.

Raider Notes The last three meetings have gone into overtime. The teams are tied in points, 80-80, for their last four. . . . Marcus Allen is seeking to break the record he shares with Walter Payton with his 10th straight 100-yard rushing game. . . . Add agitation: Bronco linebacker Ricky Hunley said Allen is “not going to get that record. . . . Will I guarantee it? If he runs my way.� . . . And Allen, spotting a Denver reporter at the Raider media breakfast, asked him: “Why’d they trade Steve Busick?� Busick, the leading Bronco tackler, went to the Rams last week, opening a starting spot for Hunley. It may be mere coincidence that Hunley has a million-dollar contract and that Bronco owner Pat Bowlen had said before the season that he was either going to start or move on. “First of all, we felt like it was the time to make the trade,� the normally gracious Reeves told Denver reporters: “Steve Busick is no longer a part of this football team and I really don’t care to discuss it further. . . . Hunley gives us a chance to win better than Busick did. That’s the reason the deal was made.� . . . Add disappointment: the Broncos acquired Mark Haynes, the All-Pro Giant who sat out the ’85 season, planning to install him opposite Louis Wright, giving them a Raider-type combination. Instead, Haynes went on injured reserve.