KC Kicks Chargers When They’re Down : Pro football: Lowery’s field goal gives Chiefs a 24-21 victory and clinches a wild-card playoff berth. Two Tolliver interceptions hurt Chargers, who lose for the fourth time in past five games.

The education of quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver continues to bedevil the Chargers and exasperate the remaining faithful.

Tolliver’s lesson Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium included two more interceptions, another defeat and more boos than Christmas cheer.

Kansas City quarterback Steve DeBerg, who has tutored the likes of Joe Montana and John Elway, guided the Chiefs into the playoffs with a 24-21 victory in front of 45,135.

DeBerg, wearing a cast on his left hand to protect a broken little finger, completed his first eight passes of the game and threw a pair of touchdown passes to assure the Chiefs (10-5) of a wild-card berth. A victory Saturday over Chicago coupled with a Chargers’ victory Sunday over the Raiders would give Kansas City its first AFC West Division title since 1971.

Nick Lowery’s field goal with 2:46 remaining snapped a 21-21 tie for the Chiefs, who have defeated the Chargers in eight of their last 10 meetings. Safety Deron Cherry intercepted his second Tolliver pass of the game with 1:48 remaining to quash a Chargers rally.

“I wasn’t real pleased with that last pass,” Chargers Coach Dan Henning said. “I told Billy that we had to take the shot and be sharp with the football. I’ll have to see what he was looking at when he threw the ball down field.”

Unless he was looking for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in lightning bolts, it will be hard to explain why his pass was 15 feet over the head of Ronnie Harmon, the nearest receiver.

Tolliver, who has remained responsive through the toughest times, left the locker room Sunday with no comment.

“You get frustrated, as he does, because you want the process to happen,” Charger quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner said. “When you play that position, your mistakes are magnified. But you just can’t (make those mistakes) and win.”

Tolliver, 8-11 as an NFL starting quarterback in his second year, completed 18 of 27 passes for 165 yards. He left the field Sunday with his helmet on and angry fans above throwing down insults.

“I believe he can play in this league,” Tollner said. “Now he’s got to stop making those kind of mistakes or he won’t be able to, but he does more positive things than negative. Unfortunately when he does negative things, we lose; that’s where we are as a football team now. We can’t make up for him.”

Henning said he will remain in Tolliver’s corner, because for now, that remains the Chargers’ best chance for success.

“I think he can be a good quarterback; whether he can be a championship quarterback remains to be seen,” Henning said. “We’re always trying to find competition. We drafted John Friesz, but he was raw as an egg and didn’t get in a position to compete. And we saw some of Mark Vlasic’s shortcomings stand out in the opening game.

“Billy competes like hell and he makes a lot of plays. Guys that play in the league elsewhere can do the same things he does, make mistakes, and they can be helped by other parts of the team that do a better job.”

Although the Chargers’ sixth-ranked defense was caught sleepwalking in the first half, Sunday’s loss will be pinned on Tolliver.

His second-quarter interception, which came off an incorrectly called play in the huddle, killed a Charger drive at the Kansas City 23-yard line. Tolliver badly overthrew Anthony Miller.

“(Mark Vlasic) flashed in the play right, (Tolliver) just made a mistake and got the wrong formation,” Tollner said. “We never ran the play one time all week from that formation. It’s just a no-chance deal.”

Tollner said Tolliver should have moved on to another receiver rather than trying to force the ball to Miller. He made the same mistake, said Tollner, when he tried to beat coverage and go to Harmon in the fourth quarter.

“You just can’t do that,” Tollner said. “He throws 28 or 29 balls and probably 25 of them are excellent decisions. But two of them are terrible and here we are again.”

For the third consecutive season, the Chargers (6-9) are poised to finish 6-10. They never have beaten the Raiders in a non-strike game in the Los Angeles Coliseum, and they undoubtedly will be underdogs Sunday.

“I can’t explain it,” Charger linebacker Leslie O’Neal said. “I have my own opinions, but I’m going to keep them to myself. I got in trouble for talking, so I’m just going to play and do the best I can.”

The Chargers fought back from a 21-7 halftime deficit to tie the score on a three-yard touchdown by Rod Bernstine and a 55-yard punt return by Kitrick Taylor.

They had the momentum, a boisterous crowd on their side and the Chiefs pinned on their own one-foot line with 7:51 to play.

“That was the turning point,” O’Neal said. “We had them. We make a tackle and it’s over.”

After nudging the ball to the five-yard line, DeBerg retreated into his own end zone on third and five to set up a screen pass to running back Todd McNair. He completed the pass to McNair, and linebacker Henry Rolling was in position to stop him for no gain.

“I had him,” Rolling said. “I thought I tackled him, but when I rolled over, he was still running.”

McNair broke through Rolling’s tackle, ran through Vencie Glenn and then reached back to shuck aside a pursuing Donnie Elder. Sam Seale eventually brought McNair down, but not until he had gained 65 yards.

Last week against the Chargers, running back Melvin Bratton took a short pass from John Elway and went 63 yards in the fourth quarter to set up a David Treadwell field goal for Denver.

McNair’s stroll led to Lowery’s game-deciding field goal, which handed the Chargers their 13th defeat by seven or fewer points in the past two seasons.

“About a minute before I went onto the field, I hurt my knee,” said Lowery, who has made 16 field goals in a row. “I think I must have overextended it or something while I was practicing. It felt really strange for awhile, but during the timeout I practiced some and it felt OK.”

At the outset of the game it didn’t look like the Chiefs were going to have to go to Lowery. They scored without much interference on their first two possessions, with DeBerg throwing an eight-yard touchdown pass to Stephone Paige and Barry Word running 11 yards for a score.

The Chargers scored on their initial possession with Tolliver connecting from five yards out with Miller, but the Chiefs jumped ahead 21-7 on DeBerg’s 40-yard pass to McNair.

“I was embarrassed in the first half, defensively,” cornerback Gill Byrd said. “I was having flashbacks to 1983 and 1984. They were doing whatever they wanted to do against us.”

DeBerg completed 13 of 16 passes for 174 yards in the first half, and Word ran 13 times for 50 yards. After gaining 238 yards by halftime, the Chiefs were limited to 138 yards in the second half, including 65 yards on the completion to McNair.

“The defense is a little bit of a mystery right now,” Henning said. “They play tremendously in spurts, and then they don’t play very well at all.”

The Chargers’ offense, which was without the services of the NFL’s leading rusher Marion Butts (foot), got a boost from Bernstine and Ronnie Harmon.

Harmon caught seven passes for 72 yards, and Bernstine came off injured reserve to run 15 times for 76 yards.

“It’s definitely depressing what’s happened to us,” Bernstine said after the Chargers lost for the fourth time in the past five games. “But the season isn’t lost for us yet. We can go up to LA and upset the Raiders.”