Oakland 4-Point Pick In Showdown With K.C.

The game the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs have been working toward and waiting for all season long -- for the American Football League championship -- will be played in the jam-packed Oakland Coliseum tomorrow, and there are many who think the fight will be as fierce as those old Roman contests. The oddsmakers, those fellows who make their living predicting the outcome of sports contests, are sticking with the Raiders, who've beaten the Chiefs twice this year, as the favorites but only by four points.

And with two of the best defensive units in pro ball banging away, it could come down to where a field goal might prove the margin of difference. So talented are the two teams that they even boast two of the best field goal kickers in the AFL -- Jan Stenerud for the Chiefs and George Blanda for the Raiders. Both coaches -- Hank Stram of Kansas City and John Madden of Oakland -- have the greatest confidence in their kickers, using them for boots almost half the distance of the field.

Stenerud, who at 27 is almost young enough to be Blanda's son, booted 27 field goals this past season and Blanda, winding up his 20th pro season, had 20. Jim Turner of New York led everyone with 32. Defensively, there is a standoff in talent between the Chiefs ' and Raiders. Offensively, there is a marked difference.

The Chiefs, although boasting the most successful passer in AFL history in 35-year-old Len Dawson, stick pretty much to the ground, and well they might be expected to again today even though that strategy cost them a 10-6 loss to the Raiders three weeks ago. But Stram, who never plays the same way twice if he can help it, worked his offense overtime in practice sessions for the title game, stressing the passing more than the running, although Robert Holmes, Mike Garrett and Warren McVea, the club's tough little runners, got in their time.

Over on the Oakland side, things are different. The club lived and died -- just once -- this year on the passing of Daryle Lamonica. It paid off in a 12-1-1 record and a playoff victory over Houston. The missing ingredient all season long was a running game. Now, it seems that the running may be revived since it's almost certain, according to the Oakland coaching staff, that the Chiefs will subject Lamonica to the greatest pressure he's had all season in an effort to nullify his "bombs" to speedy Warren Wells and Fred Biletnikoff.

[source: upi]