Chargers Look to Chill Hot Raiders : “-----------.”:<i> Charger quarterback Jim McMahon to local beat reporters on today’s home game against the Raiders. : </i>

And, yes, according to McMahon’s agent, Steve Zucker, there is truth to the rumor that Kleenex, the company that makes tissue paper, has approached Zucker about a possible endorsement contract for McMucous.

The moral: Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be boring.

The morality: Reprehensible.

The morale: For the Chargers (3-6), great now. They ended a four-game losing streak by upsetting Philadelphia last Sunday, 20-17, on a 49-yard field goal by Chris Bahr with four seconds remaining. For the Raiders (5-4) morale is even higher. They have won four of their last five.

It’s just that life around the Chargers was so much easier the first time they played the Raiders nine weeks ago.

Bo “You-Don’t-Know-Diddley” Jackson was still in a Kansas City baseball uniform then. Marcus Allen was healthy and worlds less dangerous than Jackson. And the only thing phlegmatic about McMahon was his postgame press conference after the Raiders beat the Chargers, 40-14. That’s when he said he could have gone back into the game when Charger Coach Dan Henning yanked him trailing by just two touchdowns. Then backup quarterback David Archer said McMahon asked to come out of the game. Henning subsequently gave several versions.

Controversy has dogged the Chargers ever since.

After two games, their owner, Alex Spanos, criticized the defense for playing too much “three-man prevent.” Since then only one team, the 8-1 New York Giants, has allowed fewer points than the Chargers. In the last two games the Chargers have sacked opposing quarterbacks 10 times.

This guy Spanos, maybe he knows his onions.

From weeks Five through Eight the Chargers lost four straight games in which they had a chance to win or tie on their last possession. The day after the last of those losses, McMahon blew his nose in the face of a writer. And while many people turn paler every time the incident is retold, this much is undeniable: Nothing any of the Chargers have done before or after has been talked about more.

Now come the re-tooled Raiders, a team more into flaring tempers than flaring nostrils. They have a different coach than they did Sept. 10. They have the multi-talented Jackson, who has gained 467 yards in the four games since his return. They have monster pass rusher Howie Long happy and healthy again. And they have a rushing defense that has allowed 3.5 yards per carry since Art Shell replaced Mike Shanahan as head coach.

“Art’s a little bit more relaxed (than Shanahan),” says Jay Schroeder, the quarterback who probably will start in place of Steve Beuerlein. Beuerlein injured his knee two weeks ago in a Raider victory over the Redskins, 37-24. Schroeder started in last week’s, 28-7, victory over Cincinnati.

In the first encounter between these teams the Raiders picked ceaselessly on Charger cornerback Sammy “The Way Out” Seale, a former Raider. Wide receiver Willie Gault, working almost exclusively against Seale, caught four passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. But Seale hasn’t been beaten deep since.

“That first game it was like, ‘We’re the big bad Chargers, we’ll kill these guys,’ ” Seale says now. “Now I’m more realistic. I’ve been wearing a target for seven weeks. If I was an offensive coordinator, I’d throw at me, too.”

Unless that offensive coordinator happens to have Jackson back in action. “If you tell me we’ll be able to keep Bo Jackson to 10 yards in his first five carries, I’d take it,” says Charger defensive coordinator Ron Lynn. “But if you couldn’t guarantee what those next five carries would be, I’m not so sure I’d take that.”

Last week Jackson rushed for 159 yards on just 13 carries, including a 92-yard burst that made him the first player in NFL history to score on the ground from more than 90 yards twice in his career. Two years ago he did it from 91 yards away at Seattle.

The Raiders have brought Jackson along slowly since his return from baseball, allowing him to find his football “shape” at his own pace. He has averaged less than 16 carries per game.

“Like they say,” Shell says, “Bo knows football. Bo knows baseball. Bo knows it all. But the thing Bo knows best, is Bo.”

“Right now, I don’t think we’ve played against a better back, because of his size and speed,” says Charger outside linebacker Leslie O’Neal, who has five-and-a-half sacks in his last two games.

The Chargers know the Raiders are their arch-rivals. And they don’t deny it, even though the manual says you’re supposed to treat every game the same . . . each counts just as much in the standings . . . on any given Sunday . . . these guys are all professionals . . . et cetera . . . .

“The rivalry is not only divisional,” says Henning, a former Charger quarterback. “It’s geographical and it’s historical.” History shows the Raiders have won seven of the last nine.

Thirty of the Chargers’ 47-man roster are new to the team since 1988. But, Henning says, “even though they can’t give you dates and times, they know it’s important.”

Charger Notes

Today’s Charger-Raider game (kickoff 5 p.m.) is a sellout, which means the ESPN-TV broadcast can be seen locally. . . . The Charger rushing defense, which ranks 16th in the league, gave up a season high 178 yards rushing to the Eagles last week. Philadelphia entered that game ranked fourth in rushing offense. This week the Raiders rank fourth in rushing offense.

MAKING A STAND After two games, the Chargers had allowed 74 points, second most in the NFL behind Pittsburgh’s 92. Since then has been quite different. A look at the points-allowed rankings for the past seven games: Team: Total: (Avg.) 1. Giants: 98 (14.00) 2. CHARGERS: 99 (14.14) 3. Indianapolis: 101 (14.42) 4. Denver: 106 (15.14) 5. Seattle: 110 (15.71) 6. Minnesota: 113 (16.14) 7. Raiders: 117 (16.71) 8. San Francisco: 118 (16.85) 9. Cleveland: 119 (17.00) 10. Pittsburgh: 128 (18.28) 11. Kansas City: 139 (19.85) 12. New Orleans: 139 (19.85) 13. Philadelphia: 140 (20.00) 14. Cincinnati: 141 (20.14) 15. Washington: 147 (21.00) 16. Phoenix: 156 (22.28) 17. Green Bay: 157 (22.42) 18. Buffalo: 158 (22.57) 19. Atlanta: 159 (22.71) 20. Houston: 164 (23.42) 21. Chicago: 166 (23.71) Miami: 166 (23.71) 23. New England: 168 (24.00) 24. Rams: 170 (24.28) 25. Jets: 176 (25.14) 26. Dallas: 180 (25.71) 27. Detroit: 188 (26.85) 28. Tampa Bay: 209 (29.85)