Raiders to Paint Different Picture at This Exhibition

To the Raiders, a “preseason game” is just an exhibition . . . unless it’s the one after their recent opener against the San Francisco 49ers, in which the silver and black gets picked up, turned upside down and shaken like a piggy bank.

Welcome to their new tradition, the must-win exhibition of Week 2.

Were the Raiders shaken by that 37-7 torpedoing?

Al Davis said last week that he had thought his team was “close” to being back.

“But I don’t know after the other night,” Davis said.

Tonight at 6, the rebuilding Raiders meet the rebuilding Dallas Cowboys at the Coliseum. The Cowboys have a new owner, a new coach and a new quarterback. The Raiders hope the new quarterback--UCLA’s Troy Aikman--will help boost attendance.

Aikman will only play the third quarter, with his alleged competition for the No. 1 job, Steve Walsh, the supplemental pick from Miami, going the first half and the Bambino of the waiver wire, himself, the oft-axed, ever-optimistic Babe Laufenberg, working the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, Aikman says he has a lot of Bruin friends coming, anyway.

“The Raiders want to know if you can manage 30,000,” someone said last week.

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Aikman asked.

Last week, the Raiders set Los Angeles lows for ticket sales (36,739) and attendance (31,135), not to mention artistic considerations (they trailed at halftime, 30-0, and in the third period, 37-0).

They had several disadvantages. They were rocked by Stacey Toran’s death. Injuries and holdouts left them down seven starting players plus the top backup at three more spots.

However, they were so uncompetitive, everyone quickly dismissed all that. Davis, who watches most practices from a downfield vantage point but rarely ventures more than an occasional comment, waded in last week with a stream of suggestions for Raider defensive players.

The defense, under new coordinator Dave Adolph, will feature a new, more complex scheme this season . . . but didn’t unveil it last week. Adolph chose to stay in his base defense and didn’t try to adjust to what the 49ers were doing, which was to throw underneath the new Raider zone defense, and to zip around the corners. Adolph wanted to see who had the basics down and how everyone was reacting.

Adolph didn’t “game-plan” the 49ers, Coach Mike Shanahan reminded everyone last week. Bet on this, they will be game-planning these Cowboys.

Coming off last season’s 3-13 record, the sale to Jerry Jones, the hiring of Jimmy Johnson, the firing of Tom Landry, the departure of Tex Schramm et al. amid enough controversy to fill Texas Stadium to the brim, the Cowboys were supposed to be in worse straits than the Raiders.

However, they opened with a 20-3 romp over the San Diego Chargers, so the bubbly spirit of early camp lives on. Aikman went eight for 11 and had one pass dropped on him. Quarterback coach Jerry Rhome called him “as fine a young quarterback as I’ve ever been around.”

So what’s with this “competition?”

Johnson says he doesn’t care if Aikman was the first pick in the draft, or was signed for $11 million, the man who plays best will be No. 1.

However, the Cowboys have also indicated a willingness to listen to trade offers for Walsh--but not for Aikman. The Raiders think that rumored three-cornered Raider-Packer-Cowboy deal, involving Tim Brown, Tony Mandarich and Walsh, started as a Dallas pipe dream.

Besides, Aikman enjoys several advantages.

He has been in the Cowboy system since May, having canceled an appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman” to blast off for Dallas. Walsh wasn’t drafted until months later and didn’t sign until after camp started in Thousand Oaks.

Why not call it a “competition?” If Walsh can spot Aikman greater arm strength, size, mobility and familiarity with the offense, he would be one impressive young rookie, indeed.

Meanwhile, it keeps Aikman plugging away and gives the media a different question to ask him rather than that one about the crushing pressure .

Aikman is sometimes criticized for not throwing deep by people who remember his safety-first senior season at UCLA, but forget his junior season when Flipper Anderson was around and the Bruin coaches were interested in something more than having their quarterback hit his tight end.

Johnson, obviously intent on bringing Aikman along slowly and building his confidence, ran Aikman and the offense under similar wraps last week. Aikman ran it exactly as it had been drawn up.

“I’m really happy with his poise,” Johnson said. “I thought he did a good job against San Diego’s defensive front. They have a talented front and they were coming after him with all kinds of blitzes. And we didn’t have any turnovers or delay-of-game penalties.”

Aikman, still as unaffected as the day he left Henryetta, Okla., for the UCLA campus, laughs about it.

“I don’t think there’s any significance to that,” he said. “I’ve always prided myself on trying to take what the defense gives up.

“We really didn’t open it up that much Sunday. That’s not because we’re unable to do so. The offense everybody saw against the Chargers is no indication of what the offense is going to be, come Sept. 10.”

The Raiders would like to believe that the offense and defense they displayed Aug. 12 is no indication of what they will be fielding, come Sept. 10. They would like to see some indication of that tonight, too.

Raider Notes

Start watching the Raider corners. The word in camp last week was that Mike Haynes’ starting right cornerback job is up for grabs among Haynes, Lionel Washington and even Plan B signee Mike Richardson from the Chicago Bears, who has never played that side. A year ago, amid similar rumbles, Haynes held off Washington by playing well in the final exhibition. Haynes had a solid season, but he’s 36, earns $825,000 and, according to some Raider executives, has slipped. This time, Haynes faces a tougher challenge, with two contenders, not one. . . . The tandem of Washington and Terry McDaniel is scheduled to play at least half the game, maybe more.

Dallas’ Herschel Walker had only two carries (for 16 yards) last week and might not get a lot more tonight. “I would say the maximum Herschel will be in the game is two series,” Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “I just don’t think a back of his quality needs to take a lot of hits in preseason.” . . . Ask Marcus Allen.

Bill Lewis’ request for a preliminary restraining order, which would make him a free agent, will be heard Aug. 30 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Lewis’ agent, Larry Muno, says if it is denied, Lewis will rejoin the team.

“We’ll have exhausted every remedy through the courts,” Muno said. “If the courts say he has to go back, then he’ll be forced to report. Then the Raiders will have to make a decision on whether they want him or not.”