Shell, Raiders Didn’t Know the Real Score : NFL: Coach intentionally avoided hearing earlier result that put team in must-win situation against Broncos.

With eight seconds to play in regulation Sunday at the Coliseum, the Raiders lined up at the Denver Broncos’ four-yard line.

Trailing, 30-23, this was going to be the last play of the game for the Raiders unless they could get a game-tying touchdown.

And because the Pittsburgh Steelers had beaten the Cleveland Browns earlier in the day, this was also going to be the last play of the season unless the Raiders scored. Had Pittsburgh lost, the Raiders would have automatically qualified for postseason play.

But as it was, the Raiders had to win or tie to avoid being be eliminated.

A national viewing audience knew it.

Those in the capacity Coliseum crowd knew it.

But Coach Art Shell didn’t know it.

And he didn’t want his players to know it.

All week long, Shell had waved off people who had tried to outline the ways the Raiders could sneak into the playoffs even if they lost.

“We’ve just got to win,� he told one and all.

And Shell lived by those words Sunday, avoiding all opportunities to learn the score from Pittsburgh, and the one from New England, where the Patriots’ game against the Miami Dolphins also could have had a bearing on the Raiders.

“I did not know,� Shell said. “None of the players knew. I didn’t want to know. Our focus had to be on this game. We must win the game ourselves. We can’t depend on anybody else. You start depending on somebody else, you don’t get things done.�

So even at halftime, with the Steeler and Dolphin games long over and his team trailing, 27-13, Shell made no effort to learn what the other teams had done.

“We were mad,� Shell said. “We were down. We couldn’t concentrate on Pittsburgh. We had to concentrate on the Denver Broncos.�

It was only after the Raiders tied the score on the final play of regulation on a four-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Hostetler to Alexander Wright, only after Jeff Jaeger kicked the 47-yard field goal that gave the Raiders a 33-30 overtime victory that Shell was told by Raider executive assistant Al LoCasale that Pittsburgh had won and that Miami had not lost by a big enough margin to help the Raiders. *

Shell might not have paid attention to the out-of-town scores, but he paid plenty of attention to the score of his own game.

When it went into overtime, Shell knew that it would almost certainly be decided by a field goal.

So he geared his decisions to the man who would ultimately have to live with them--Jaeger, his kicker.

When the Raiders lost the coin toss in overtime, they were at least allowed to choose which end of the field to defend.

They could have forced Denver to go from the peristyle end to the closed end, subjecting quarterback John Elway to the noisier closed end if he should put together a drive.

But Jaeger prefers to kick into the closed end because of a better background.

So the Raiders chose Jaeger’s favorite side.

After the Broncos’ Jason Elam missed a 40-yard kick at the peristyle end, Hostetler drove the Raiders down to the closed end.

When play stopped for a moment with the Raiders still far out of field-goal range, Jaeger ran out onto the field and surveyed the scene, checking the background in the setting sun, the soft breeze and the barely noticeable air currents.

He decided that the ideal would be to kick from the left hash mark, preferably inside the 50.

“What wind there was was going right to left,� Jaeger said. “In my mind, I wanted to play it right-center and let it drift back in.�

Shell got the message.

“I knew which hash he wanted,� Shell said, “I knew which yard line he needed to go to and where he wanted the ball.�

Shell delivered. Jaeger got the ball in the closed end, left hash, 47 yards away.

And then he delivered.