Raiders Feeling Down About Confusing Loss

They hadn’t played in Pittsburgh in 20 years, but it didn’t take long for a typical Raiders-Steelers game to break out. There was spitting, shoving and, yes, the mandatory disputed ending, too.

The Raiders (10-3), whose previous two losses were to Denver, couldn’t give Sebastian Janikowski a chance to win it in the closing seconds. They drove to the Steeler 41 but, with the scoreboard showing third down on what actually was a fourth down, Rich Gannon’s swing pass to fullback Jon Ritchie fell incomplete.

Gannon suggested the Raiders probably would have run a different play if had they known what down it was.

“What we would have liked to do was throw to Rickey [Dudley], have him fall down and call a timeout and try to kick a field goal,” Gannon said. “I wasn’t able to convey that to anybody. There was uncertainty as to what we wanted to do. I went over to the sidelines and there was some confusion.”

Of course, how could there be a Raiders-Steelers game in Pittsburgh without it?

The Steelers beat the Raiders in the 1972 AFC playoffs on Franco Harris’ “Immaculate Reception,” and owner Al Davis is still incensed about a 16-10 loss in the 1975 AFC title game played on a suspiciously icy field.

“I don’t know if this was as strange as 1972 and 1975, but it was a strange football game,” Raider receiver Tim Brown said.

“It was a really emotional game,” safety Lee Flowers said. “Some guys even had tears in their eyes.”

Even though the teams hadn’t played since 1995, the game was especially physical and intense. The Raiders’ Regan Upshaw reflected that by spitting in Steeler punter Josh Miller’s face after the two argued briefly.

“That shows you what an emotional game it was,” Flowers said.

REDEMPTION

So much for the questions about Al Del Greco.

The 38-year-old Tennessee kicker, who missed two field goals and an extra point to cost the Titans two games in the last three weeks, kicked a 50-yarder, his fifth field goal of the game, as time expired Sunday to beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 15-13.

“There have been questions about our kicker, about his technique, about his mental toughness,” Titan Coach Jeff Fisher said. “I kept saying he was going to pull out of it. There wasn’t a bigger kick than that last one, and that’s a tribute to Al and what he’s been through.”

Del Greco missed an extra point and a potential game-winning field-goal attempt against Cleveland, and last week missed a field-goal try that would have put the Titans ahead late in a game they lost 16-13 in Jacksonville.

But he was perfect Sunday. His fourth field goal, a 44-yarder with 5:23 left, put the Titans ahead by six.

“It’s been a rough two weeks,” Del Greco said. “I’ve been looking at myself and it was a focus problem. As long as we win, I don’t care if I make any field goals. I’d much rather win by 24 or 28.”

DOLPHINS ARE WARMING TO THE COLD AIR

In maintaining sole possession of the AFC East lead with a 33-6 win over Buffalo at Orchard Park, N.Y., the Miami Dolphins (10-3) need to win only one of their final three games to clinch a playoff berth. Along with completing the season-series sweep by winning at Buffalo for the first time since 1996, Miami also won a rare game in cold-weather conditions.

The game-time temperature was 27 degrees, with a wind chill of 16. The Dolphins are now 4-7 in their history when the mercury dips below 29.

A LOT OF DOUGH, WITH NOTHING TO SHOW

When George Allen coached the Washington Redskins three decades ago, he snatched up as many fading 30-something stars as he could find and declared “the future is now.”

For Washington owner Daniel Snyder, who spent $100 million in the off-season for fading but still productive Pro Bowl players, the future is over.

After losing, 9-7, to the New York Giants on Sunday, the Redskins (7-6) are on the verge of elimination, and Coach Norv Turner is on the brink of losing his job. The most expensive roster in NFL history lost for the fourth time in five games with another unfocused performance, especially on offense.

It wasn’t until Jeff George replaced Brad Johnson at quarterback with eight minutes to play that the Redskins came to life. George led a 97-yard touchdown drive and another drive to the Giant 30 in the final minute, but Eddie Murray was short on a 49-yard field attempt with 50 seconds to play.

“That’s as poorly as we’ve performed offensively as long as I can remember,” said Turner, who indicated that George will start next week.

“We weren’t able to block. We struggled to execute some pretty basic things.”

Asked if he thought he would be fired this week, Turner said, “You’re asking the wrong guy.”

Snyder has said the Redskins must repeat as division champions for Turner to keep his job, which would require winning the last three and getting unlikely help from other teams. Both Philadelphia and the Giants hold the tiebreaker edge over the Redskins.

“Maybe we focused a little too much on the rest of the season and how we had to win the rest of our games,” Irving Fryar, one of four Redskins older than the 36-year-old owner, said.

EGGHEADS CRACK HEADS

When Marcellus Wiley, who attended Columbia, sacked Dolphin quarterback Jay Fiedler (Dartmouth) in the first quarter, it marked the first time two Ivy Leaguers were involved in a sack since 1984 when Buffalo’s Joe Dufek (Yale) was sacked by Cincinnati’s Reggie Williams (Dartmouth).

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--Compiled by HOUSTON MITCHELL