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Flashback Raiders' offense shines like in the days of oldPosted: Sunday January 13, 2002 1:22 AM
OAKLAND -- C'mon, let's just admit it. We were expecting old and tired. Instead, we got both the Oakland Raiders and the Jerry Rice of old. When we looked at them in recent weeks, we saw only their limitations, didn't we? We counted the rings around their trunks, made a few carbon testing jokes, and took pains to point out that Rice, Rich Gannon and Tim Brown couldn't do this and couldn't do that. But somehow we forgot all they already had done. Silly us, the only rings we should have been counting were the ones on Rice's fingers. Between them, the Raiders' Big Three entered this one with 35 games' worth of NFL playoff experience, and 43 seasons in the league. Rice, a playoff perennial with the 49ers, owned two-thirds of that playoff total (23 games). But Gannon and Brown had been here before, too, and weren't exactly playoff novices. On Saturday night, in their wild-card round game against the visiting New York Jets, the Raiders put all that experience on display. And when everything got added up, Oakland looked playoff tried and tested in its 38-24 victory. Anything but broken down. "I really felt young today," said Rice, who rolled up the biggest playoff day by any Raiders receiver since Cliff Branch in 1974. "As a team. ... I really felt we rose to the occasion. For some reason, when it's time for the playoffs, that’s when I play my best football." We vow once again to never forget it. How can we? Rice, Gannon and Brown made like modern-day Ponce De Leons against the New Yorkers.
And for good measure, eight-year veteran running back Charlie Garner drove the dagger through the Jets' heart with his game-icing 80-yard touchdown run, finishing with an eye-popping 158 yards rushing on 15 carries. Thanks to their advanced years, the Raiders are advancing in the AFC playoffs. "What can you say about Jerry Rice?" asked Oakland head coach Jon Gruden. "It's a great feeling to be on his team in the playoffs. I can't believe his performance tonight. Those 49ers acquisitions were big today. Jerry may be 39, but George Foreman won the heavyweight championship when he was 44, so he's got a lot of football left in him." Make no mistake, the Silver and Black are old in a Blue Cross and Blue Shield kind of way. Eight of their players have at least 10 years of NFL experience. Sixteen Raiders -- or almost one-third of the roster -- have eight or more years in the league. Nobody's saying it aloud, but Oakland's team colors this season could be gray and black. But with the remarkable Rice leading the way, Oakland proved once again that age can be valued, experience cherished. "The guy's phenomenal," Gannon said of Rice, a 16-year veteran. "They say he's 39, but he seems like he's 29 to me. He's just had fresh legs, and really came to life tonight. I've got two Hall of Famers on either side of me [in Rice and Brown], and I'm going to ride that horse as far as I can." Ninety-one days past his 39th birthday, Rice was a true marvel against the Jets. If you squinted Saturday night, you can have sworn that Joe Montana or Steve Young were at the other end of all those completions, and that another San Francisco sell-out crowd was toasting Rice's starring role in another playoff victory. But in truth, this kind of game is exactly why Rice journeyed east of Eden last offseason, signing with the hated Raiders rather than call it a career in 49ers colors. If nothing else, Saturday night was vindication day. Rice's cross-bay reincarnation was one of the bigger success stories in the league this season, but against the Jets he proved he can still take over and dominant in his team's biggest game of the year. "It's crunch time, man," Rice said. "Everything was on the line. This is the time of year you live for. It's playoff time. I put that pressure on myself to lead and make plays, and get things going. "I've had a lot of great games with the 49ers, but to be able to come here to Oakland ... that's just icing on the cake. When I came over here, I wanted to be a factor. I had fun today. I enjoyed this. I feel like I had a very productive season, but now is when we really have to do it. Rich and Tim felt the same way. We just all wanted to make things happen today." The Raiders and Rice wasted no time in establishing a different tempo from the regular season, which had concluded in Oakland with three consecutive losses. The Raiders threw a no-huddle look at the Jets on their first drive, sweeping down the field for a 12-play, 74-yard drive that set up a chip shot field goal for kicker Sebastian Janikowski. The drive's big play was a 27-yard Rice reception on the third snap of the game, with the NFL's all-time leading pass receiver and touchdown-maker pulling off a pretty spin move after the catch. The more Gannon fed him, the more Rice rose to the moment. He had a 29-yard catch on Oakland's second possession, which also produced a field goal, and three more catches on the Raiders' next two scoring drives. Rice finished the first half with five grabs for 88 yards, but saved his best work for after the break. His 47-yard catch and gallop down to the Jets' 4 on a skinny post pattern steadied the Raiders late in the third quarter, when their lead was just 16-10. And his 21-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter helped stave off New York's comeback attempt. "We tried to get him and Tim involved, because the bigger the game, the bigger he plays," Gruden said. "He was excited and thrives in this atmosphere. He loves the big games. The more you ask of him, the more he relishes." A week ago, after they lost to these same Jets and thus bungled away a first-round bye and a divisional-round home game, the Raiders looked like a tired team whose past was brighter than its future. Of Rice, Gannon and Brown, it was tempting to echo the thought. Who knows? Next week in the chill of a New England winter, the Raiders may again have their weaknesses exposed. But for one more glorious night, Rice and the Raiders reached into that past to ensure one more tomorrow. Just like in the days of old. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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