Raiders, Ravens Represent New Breed

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) â€” Two teams that were 8-8 a year ago, the Baltimore Ravens and the Oakland Raiders, are playing for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. <br><br>``It's been a strange

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) â€” Two teams that were 8-8 a year ago, the Baltimore Ravens and the Oakland Raiders, are playing for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

``It's been a strange season, very strange,'' said Baltimore coach Brian Billick, whose team reached the conference title game despite getting only 134 yards of offense and six first downs in upsetting Tennessee 24-10 last Sunday.

The Raiders and Ravens are the fifth and sixth teams to play for the AFC championship the last three years. It was the Titans and Jaguars a year ago and the Broncos and Jets in 1999.

Since 1997, 26 of the 30 teams (excluding Cleveland, which rejoined the NFL a year ago) have made the playoffs.

So it's really no surprise that Baltimore and Oakland are here.

The Raiders last made the playoffs in 1992 during their 14-season stint in Los Angeles. The Ravens last made the postseason in 1994, when they were the Cleveland Browns.

Baltimore made a big move in the second half of last season, Billick's first year as head coach, winning five of its last seven games to finish at .500 after Billick installed Tony Banks at quarterback. That was far better than the Ravens did in their first three seasons after moving from Cleveland to Baltimore: 4-12, 6-9-1 and 6-10.

The late finish was enough to establish Baltimore as a team on the rise this season. The Ravens had one of the NFL's best defenses, and Banks seemed to have established himself after a rocky start to his career in St. Louis.

Right and wrong.

The defense was fine, and when it wasn't, the offense rescued it, as in a 39-36 win over Jacksonville in the second week of the season. The Jaguars, meanwhile, were slipping, making Baltimore the only team able to challenge Tennessee in the AFC Central.

But Banks was not the answer. The turnover problems that plagued him with the Rams followed him to Baltimore, and the Ravens started 5-4, remarkable considering they went the entire month of October â€” five games â€” without scoring a touchdown.

Enter Trent Dilfer, run out of Tampa Bay, where he had started since 1995 with increasingly negative results. He wasn't great, but he didn't turn over the ball, and the Ravens are now on a nine-game winning streak.

Oakland has looked like a playoff contender since Jon Gruden took over in 1998, but the Raiders finished 8-8 in each of his first two seasons. Still, last season they lost no game by more than a touchdown, and several losses were because of kicking problems. So, they used their first-round draft pick on kicker Sebastian Janikowski, and their fourth on punter Shane Lechler.

Janikowski had a rough start, but it didn't matter. This year, the Raiders won by enough so that kicking was secondary. Rich Gannon had a season that was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the MVP voting.

So here they are, another product of parity.

Or are they?

``We're here to stay,'' said Tim Brown, who has 13 seasons with the Raiders. ``We won't be going away for a long time.''