Chargers Surprise Raiders : NFL: For the second consecutive week, a team with playoff aspirations finds the team in San Diego hard to contend with.

Suddenly, it is a brave new world for the Chargers. Blocking punts. Running back kickoffs for touchdowns. Overcoming penalties, injuries, fumbles, interceptions. And, for the second consecutive week, beating a team that figured it was headed for the playoffs.

Last week, it was the Eagles and crusty Coach Buddy Ryan. Sunday night, it was the Raiders and their unctuous owner, Al Davis.

At home, on national television and under the pale light of a full moon, the Chargers overcame a 12-point deficit and beat the Raiders, 14-12.

“This one,” said Raider defensive end Howie Long, “is still kind of a shock.”

“With all due respect,” said Charger strong safety Martin Bayless. “the Chargers were the better team.”

Bayless had been audacious enough to predict the Chargers would win last week. But his head coach, Dan Henning, wasn’t so sure in the first half when he lost his deep snapper with a knee injury and his place-kicker with a rib injury.

After the game, Henning recalled what the father of Giant Coach Bill Parcells used to say when Henning and Parcells were young coaches together at Florida State. “It’s always darkest,” the elder Parcells would say, “before it gets to be pitch black.”

It got even worse early in the final period. Trailing by five points, the Chargers had driven to the Raider 11 following former Raider Sam Seale’s interception of a Jay Schroeder pass.

Running back Tim Spencer turned the right end, broke several tackles and fumbled . At the one-foot line. Raider strong safety Mike Harden forced the fumble and recovered it. But the Chargers, who lost four consecutive games earlier this year when they could have won or tied on their last possession, were wholly uncowed.

Three plays after Spencer’s turnover, the Charger defense that hasn’t allowed more than 20 points in any of the past eight games stiffened again.

Ken Woodard, acting on a tip from Joe Madden, the special teams coach, burst past Raider long-snapper Trey Junkin and partially blocked Jeff Gossett’s punt.

Woodard said Madden had told him that once Junkin puts his head down to snap the ball, he never brings it back up. Woodard said Junkin never saw him standing over him and that he came clean on the block.

It gave the Chargers the ball back on the Raider 23. And the Chargers went right back to Spencer. “I never thought of taking him out,” Henning said.

Quarterback Jim McMahon, who finished with nine completions in 20 attempts for 88 yards, dumped a swing pass to Spencer for eight. Then Spencer tried left tackle for four. Then he burst up the middle for six to set up second and goal at the five.

When McMahon saw the Raider defense overshifted in response to the Chargers’ unbalanced line, he audibled to a play called “40-gut.” Right guard David Richards cleared the way inside for Spencer to come off his right hip. Right tackle Brett Miller wedged Long outside so Spencer could cut inside his left shoulder.

This time Spencer held onto the ball. There were eight minutes and 38 seconds remaining. But the Chargers were also able to hold onto the lead. They are now 4-6. The Raiders, who had won four of their past five, dropped to 5-5.

“We’ll have to look at the film and try to stop that in the future,” said Raider defensive end Scott Davis.

Too late.

“The Raiders prided themselves on a new era,” Bayless said. “Today was the Charger era.”

It just took a while to find it.

Early on, the Chargers showed why their offense ranked 26th in the league after nine weeks. On their first two plays from scrimmage, penalties set them back four yards and two yards to their own two. Then McMahon threw three consecutive incomplete passes.

The next time they got the ball, the Chargers committed two more penalties before Hank Ilesic had to punt again.

Yet another penalty, delay of game, nullified a 25-yard Chris Bahr field goal. After moving back five yards, things got worse for the Chargers. Rookie center Courtney Hall snapped the ball over holder David Archer’s head. Bahr retrieved the ball at the 41 but got clobbered by Raider Dan Land and had to leave the game on a golf cart with what was later described as “sprained” ribs.

Hall was in the game because regular snapper Chris Gannon had left earlier in the first period with a bruised right knee. McMahon finished the first half with five completions in 13 attempts for 27 yards. The Chargers’ total offense in the first two periods was 100 yards.

Meanwhile, Raider kicker Jeff Jaeger converted from 23, 36, 33 and 32 yards to give the Raiders a 12-0 lead. After his fourth three-pointer, the Chargers’ biggest crowd of the year (59,151) finally got what it had come to see.

Anthony Miller took Jaeger’s kickoff at the eight, cut right off a Woodard block on Zeph Lee and sprinted up the right sideline for 91 yards and a touchdown. It was the second kickoff return for a touchdown in Miller’s two-year NFL career. And it was the first time any Charger had ever scored more than once on a kickoff return.

Even though the Chargers had announced Bahr would not return, he did--converting the extra point following Miller’s score. The Chargers’ backup, if Bahr had not been able to come back, would have either been Ilesic or outside linebacker Billy Ray Smith, whose last kick of any import was a 17-yarder in a 1985 preseason game.

“It’s an easy job,” Smith said after that kick. “Maybe I can do it when I get older.” Maybe we’ll never have to know.

Almost lost in all the post-game analyses were the game-high 103 yards Raider running back Bo Jackson gained on 21 rushes. Jackson’s longest run was 20 yards, and he didn’t score.”

“Bo don’t know the end zone,” the Chargers chanted in the locker room after the game.”

“Our strategy was to gang tackle him and not let him get his shoulders turned upfield,” said Charger free safety Vencie Glenn.

Jackson, like Long, wasn’t quite sure what to say. Ask to explain his feelings after the game, Bo peeped, “I really don’t know.”

Said Long: “You say to yourself, ‘We should have won.’ But we don’t have any excuses.”

Charger Notes

CHARGER NOTES: Charger running back Tim Spencer, who didn’t carry the ball until late in the third period, led all Charger running backs with 59 yards on 10 carries. Marion Butts gained 56 yards on 11 tries. . . . Raider quarterback Jay Schroeder played the whole game and completed 12 of 25 for 173 yards. . . . Each team had three sacks. The Chargers also had three interceptions. . . . Best Bo Jackson banner at Sunday night’s Chargers-Raiders game: “BO DON’T SURF.” Best Jim McMahon banner: “JIMBO NOSE FOOTBALL.”