PRO FOOTBALL REPORT : WEEKDAY UPDATE : CHARGERS : Team Gets Ready to Face Jackson, Long

Bo is expected to play and Howie may be activated, but don’t look for Billy Ray.

Coach Dan Henning said his Chargers will prepare for the Raiders with the expectation that running back Bo Jackson and defensive lineman Howie Long will play in Sunday’s game in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Linebacker Billy Ray Smith, who has been lost for the past month with strained abdominal muscles, is eligible to come off injured reserve this week.

But Henning said, “I don’t see it. I don’t say there is no possibility, but I haven’t gotten that feeling from the trainers and the doctors. We’re not making any giant plans for his return right now.”

Jackson, meanwhile, took 10 days off after the baseball season and has reported for duty with the Raiders. He missed the first five weeks of 1989 and then gained 85 yards and scored a two-yard touchdown against Kansas City in his first action.

“You get torn sometimes,” Henning said. “If you don’t see Bo, you see Marcus (Allen). I’d rather not see either one of them.”

Long, who has been to the Pro Bowl in six of the past seven years, suffered a broken toe in the Raiders’ second game of the season and is now eligible to come off injured reserve.

The Raiders are 5-1 and on top of the AFC West Division, and Henning called them “probably” the toughest team on the schedule.

“It would be a good game for us to win to get closer to them and to get on top of the one we just won in New York,” he said. “That’s what is going to be on our minds this week. All that’s taken place in the past and all that will take place in the future will take a rumble seat to this game.”

Three years ago, Coach Al Saunders fell in disfavor with the front office when he suggested the Raiders had better personnel than the Chargers.

Henning, Saunders’ successor, said Tuesday the Chargers do not match up well with the Raiders.

“They’re a lot bigger than we are,” he said. “They are more veteran across the board, but they come down here and they’re on the schedule, so we’ll have to line up and be prepared.”

Henning said starting safety Vencie Glenn is “very doubtful” with a hamstring injury.

When Glenn was forced from Sunday’s game with the Jets, cornerback Gill Byrd worked much of the time in his spot.

Wide receiver Walter Wilson replaced Quinn Early in the starting lineup earlier this season, then injured his knee two weeks ago and Early returned.

Henning said Wilson is recovering from his injury, but won’t return to the lineup as a starter.

“He’s not ready to start now,” Henning said. “Physically, he’s not ready to take it on, and I think Quinn is playing well enough that that’s going to be continued competition all year.”

With the jitters behind, rookie cornerback Donald Frank figures there will be a few less burnings on his side of the field in the future.

Henning was pleased with what he saw from Frank in Sunday’s 39-3 victory over the Jets. It was a marked improvement over his bump-and-chase coverage of previous weeks.

“We felt like he was just nervous and anxious,” Henning said. “He did things much better in the practices than he’d been doing in the game. And this week he did a lot better in the game.”

Confidence does wonders.

“I have to say in the past I was sort of nervous,” Frank said. “I was worried about getting beat. You can’t worry about that because you’re going to get beat on several occasions. Now I’m learning to live with that.”