Blizzard of reasons why Raiders won

GARY PETERSON: TIMES COLUMNIST

Blizzard of reasons why Raiders won

DENVER - Well, you saw the game. And unless you're putting on airs, you can't explain it either.

The Raiders won a game Sunday night. Not only did they win a game, they won it in stunning comeback fashion. Not only did they win in stunning comeback fashion, they won it in the snow. Not only did they do all of the above, they won against an opponent to whom they surrendered unconditionally just six weeks ago.

The final score was Raiders 25, Denver Broncos 24. If you don't believe us, ask Mike Shanahan's cardiologist.

You can go broke betting conventional wisdom in the NFL -- Cincinnati 58, Cleveland 48? -- but Sunday night's game seemed an unusually easy read. The conditions, for one thing. Denver plays eight altitude games to the Raiders' one each season, and probably 10 snow games for every one the Raiders play.

The motivation, for another. The Raiders lost their seventh game last Sunday. The only thing seven (or more) losses will get you in the AFC this season is a kick in the pants and a cab ride home. Meanwhile, the Broncos were trying to remain co-leaders of the AFC West with San Diego.

You even could see how it would happen. Denver running back Reuben Droughns would run for 185 yards. The Raiders would lose enthusiasm as only the Raiders can. Final score: 42-6 Denver, or thereabouts.

Then again, these are the Raiders. And as we should have learned by now, they are a full-service enigma. They may lose games they should have won. They may give up on games in which they should have been competitive. The flip side of that is, about the time you conclude they are serial underachievers, they'll jump up and win a game, playing the way they told you they'd play all along.

In the case of Sunday night, with a side of George Blanda.

This is what the Raiders insisted would be the norm way back in training camp. Their defense might not be airtight, but it would make opponents work for what they got. Sure enough, Droughns ran for a respectable 102 yards. But he wasn't the force he was during Denver's 31-3 win in Oakland on Oct. 17.

Nor was Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer. Nor were his receivers, the Flying Putziers.

Back in training camp, the Raiders declared their young wide receivers were gassed up and ready to go. They declared it to Tim Brown, who asked for his release. Jerry Rice figured it out for himself a couple months later, and asked for a trade.

On Sunday, the next generation transcended promise to something more concrete. Jerry Porter caught three touchdown passes -- two against Champ Bailey, Denver's alpha cornerback, the other for the win on fourth-and-goal with 1:49 to play.

Ronald Curry, who butchered a potential game-winning touchdown pass at the end of last week's game against San Diego, set up Sunday's winning score with a 63-yard catch. He also scored Oakland's third touchdown with an elevated, one-handed, Venus flytrap of an effort.

Kerry Collins, the man Raiders fans love to excoriate, was far from perfect. He donated a touchdown to the Denver cause, when his pass for Curry was deflected at the line of scrimmage and returned for a touchdown by lineman Ellis Johnson.

But Collins also flashed his upside, putting 60-yard passes on a pinpoint, defiantly floating 30-yard lobs over double coverage, leading a team that came into the game going nowhere.

To repeat: This was a game that had "Long winter's nap" written all over it where the Raiders were concerned. And yet, less than 30 playing seconds after Oakland's Ray Buchanan was suckered on an 85-yard touchdown pass to Rod Smith, Collins and Porter connected over Bailey for a 42-yard score.

Denver scored two touchdowns in a 60-second span to take a 24-13 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in a 4:22 span to go up, 25-24.

It was the kind of out-of-nowhere effort in a going-nowhere season that begs two questions:

Where the heck has that been? And:

When can we expect to see it again?

Because if the Raiders can summon that kind of mojo upon command, then their turnaround may not be as arduous a task as we might have imagined a few days ago. Their defense may just have that much grit. Their offense may just have enough thunder and lightning to overcome itself.

Or, we may have been the victims of an elaborate hoax on Sunday night. And if that sounds like a hedge, hey, you saw the game. You tell us.