Bo Makes Raiders Twice as Nice : Pro football: Jackson’s return produces a balanced running attack, not a clash of egos, in 24-9 victory over Chargers.

Some said the town wasn’t big enough for the two of them, that one would eventually take his ball and go home. They’d fight like two pop singers over the same microphone. They would trounce each other’s lines.

But Sunday, the Raiders unleashed a harmonic convergence on the San Diego Chargers, pounding with incessant one-two combinations of Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen in a methodical 24-9 victory before 60,569 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

In the second half, Jackson and Allen passed the baton back and forth like lodge brothers with a sacred oath, throwing looks that froze the Chargers into blanks stares.

It was only a 10-6 Raider lead at the half. The game was there for the taking, and the Raiders took it.

They started the third quarter with Bo’s Drive, an eight-play, 68-yard romp to the end zone that concluded with Jackson lowering his head and daring anyone to stop him from seven yards out. The Chargers charged, but Jackson paid no mind and plowed in for the touchdown. He carried four times on the drive for 19 yards.

With the Raiders leading, 17-9, in the fourth quarter, Allen first lined up at his own 35 as a wide receiver. After a 24-yard completion from quarterback Jay Schroeder to tight end Ethan Horton, Schroeder threw 12 yards to Allen in the left flat.

From the Charger 29, Allen swept right and ran 27 yards to the San Diego two-yard line. After a Raider penalty nullified a touchdown by Allen, Schroeder threw an eight-yard scoring pass to Willie Gault with 9:30 remaining, leaving the Chargers little room for a comeback.

In the end, the Raiders’ two-headed tailback attack was this balanced: Jackson ran 12 times for 53 yards and scored two touchdowns. Allen gained 45 yards in eight carries and had three catches for 50 yards.

So what about these two monster egos? Can they co-exist? Allen tried to answer the question amid a wave of fleeing reporters, who were informed that The Bo Jackson Interview would be held next door.

“You have to be the judge of that,” Allen said. “We both played pretty well. There was no drop off. There wasn’t a problem. I want to win, that’s the bottom line. The situation is here, and I’m going to deal with it in a positive manner.”

As the Raiders improved to 6-1, the question arises: whose bad situation is this? Jackson and Allen seemed to be handling it better than, say, the Charger defense.

Make no mistake. Jackson, a news conference in perpetual motion, knows how to steal headlines. He entered the game with 2:59 left in the first quarter and was stopped for no gain on his first carry by San Diego linebacker Junior Seau.

Jackson described the hit: “If felt like it cut me in half at the waist.”

It seemed like Seau was still throwing his fist in air in celebration when, a few plays later, Jackson ran around left end for a five-yard touchdown run with 8:51 left in the half.

Jackson made it look easy, but it turns out he was nervous after the first series.

“I lost my breakfast,” Jackson said in a way that could no way be construed as an endorsement for one of his products, Cheerios. “Because I don’t eat breakfast. But I got up this morning and ate breakfast. I got up a little jittery.”

After his touchdown run, Allen met Jackson coming off the field and the two players slapped hands. The league shuddered.

Schroeder, who doesn’t mind standing back to watch a good tailback show, said he can’t believe the options available with his runners.

“It just keeps a running back fresh,” he said of the rotation system. “It’s not so much a different look, but it’s a matter of keeping people fresh. They’re able to run the ball extremely well every time they’re in there, and that’s going to take its toll.”

Funny thing, but the Chargers were trying to do the same thing to the Raiders with their running combination of Marion Butts, 76 yards in 16 carries, and Rod Bernstine, who finished with 45 yards in eight carries.

San Diego’s problem was that it couldn’t finish off any drive it started. The Chargers controlled the middle of the field and had first downs in Raider territory at the five-, 23-, 19-,12- and three-yard lines, only to come away with a total of nine points.

The Chargers also didn’t know how to manage fortune. They could have turned the game around shortly before the half, when cornerback Sammy Seale intercepted a pass from Schroeder and returned it 14 yards to the Raider 44 with 1:10 left.

But the Chargers finished the series back in their own territory thanks to a reverse attempt to receiver Anthony Miller that lost four yards and an 11-yard sack of quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver by Raiders’ defensive end Scott Davis.

“That took the air right out of their sails,” Raider nose tackle Bob Golic said.

The Raider defense, as in recent weeks, stretched without breaking. The Chargers amassed 289 yards and managed three field goals. They controlled the ground and the clock and lost. Trailing 24-9 late in the fourth quarter, they pushed the ball downfield without much problem before running into a stone wall they would come to know as the end zone. The Chargers were first and goal at the three and came up empty again, failing when a fourth-down pass from Tolliver intended for Miller was batted down by safety Dan Land with 3:39 remaining.

That moment captured the Chargers’ frustration.

“We’re having trouble throwing the ball inside the 20,” Chargers Coach Dan Henning said. “We’re not having trouble running.”

So why weren’t the Chargers running?

The Raiders said it was just a matter of strapping up the belt a few notches when opponents get inside their 20-yard line.

“If we can’t stop them right away, nobody quits,” Golic explained. “We just figure we’re going to stop them eventually. I compare this to last year. Last year we had that blank stare on our faces when people started driving on us. Like, ‘What are we going to do now?’ This year it’s not like that. Even if they drive 70 yards on us and they’re on the 10-yard line, guys are like, ‘hey, suck it up, let’s go.’ ”

The Raiders, who have a bye next week and a two-game lead in the AFC West, claim to have become a family, a place where a Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen can share the spotlight and success.

“Guys aren’t shaking hands at the end of the game,” Golic said. “Guys are throwing arms around each other. And it’s not for show. It’s because guys mean it. This is a very close team. I’m not playing for personal glory. Bo and Marcus aren’t playing for personal glory. They’re playing to help this team. That’s why we can suck it up in the end.”

Raider Notes

The Raiders finished the game with two penalties for nine yards. . . . Quarterback Jay Schroeder completed 11 of 20 passes for 176 yards with one touchdown and one interception. . . . The Raiders held San Diego star receiver Anthony Miller to three catches for 40 yards. . . . Willie Gault led Raider receivers with 66 yards in four catches.

* POPPING OFF: Bo Jackson uses a bit of helmet psychology in his 1990 Raider debut. Chris Baker’s story, C12.