Winless Raiders to Take On Bears Today

With their opportunities to get it right having dwindled to this afternoon’s 1 p.m. game against the Chicago Bears, the Raiders will take their last shot of the exhibition season.

The Raiders are 0-3. They’ve never had a winless exhibition season before.

They have a rushing average of 2.8 yards a carry.

Subtract Jay Schroeder’s improvised scrambles and it’s 2.5 yards a carry. Subtract the scrambles of Schroeder and Steve Beuerlein and it’s a grand total of 127 yards in three outings.

They’re giving up an average of 5.1 yards a rush and 187 a game.

They have a number of veterans playing for their starting jobs . . . if not careers. With Todd Christensen and James Lofton newly trimmed, Mike Haynes and Matt Millen are next on the endangered species list.

Lionel Washington has just been moved ahead of Haynes as the No. 1 right cornerback. If Washington doesn’t get burned today, Haynes may be history.

Millen sits for the second straight exhibition behind Jackie Shipp at inside linebacker. Jerry Robinson, who is expected to start there, has a groin pull that will cost him the entire exhibition season, and the Raiders are apparently undecided about what to do next. They started Shipp in Oakland against the Oilers, and the Raiders gave up a tidy 198 yards on the ground.

Pity poor Jackie. He gets his last audition today behind a defensive line that will probably be without defensive ends Howie Long and Scott Davis, both hurting.

Also, the Bears can run the ball. They have a fine offensive line, a herd of bruising backs and a rushing average of 159 yards a game, most of that amassed by their deep subs. Of the top four backs on their depth chart, only Neal Anderson has more than 10 carries.

Schroeder begins work with a 43.4% completion record. There were rumbles last week that Beuerlein (68.8%) was about to get a start, but Schroeder survived. Mike Shanahan, Schroeder’s arch-defender, says Jay “needs to improve.”

And the Bears are already in a bad mood.

After they were beaten in successive weeks at Soldier Field by the likes of the Chargers (in Jim McMahon’s widely ballyhooed homecoming) and Chiefs, Coach Mike Ditka went off. He said his reserves were “terrible,” adding, “We lined up with backup people who couldn’t play a lick.”

Ditka cut 18 of his reserves last week--”I had a lot of remorse in my heart going into this to cut people; I don’t have any after watching some of them play”--and says his No. 1 units will play into the third period today.

The No. 1 Bear defense has given up only a field goal in six quarters.

The Raiders are predicting a crowd on this Labor Day weekend in the same 31,000-to-32,000 range of their first two exhibitions. The turnouts were two of the team’s three smallest crowds in Los Angeles.

Otherwise, as far as the Raiders are concerned, everything is right on schedule.