Chargers Thinking Playoffs : Football: But Coach Bobby Ross is not as ready to discuss them after the victory at Cleveland.

More than 200 fans met the Chargers Sunday night upon the team’s return home Sunday from a thrilling 14-13 victory over the Cleveland Browns. Most of them chanted “playoffs, playoffs.” Charger players were openly discussing the team’s playoff chances in the locker room.

Playoff hysteria?

Not exactly.

Although players were not afraid to talk playoffs Monday, Coach Bobby Ross was extremely sensitive whenever that word came up.

“I think you just take it a day at a time and a week at a time,” Ross said. “Until you get to the playoffs, you haven’t arrived.”

Ross was asked if hearing his players talking about the playoffs made him nervous.

“It does until I have a chance to say something,” Ross said. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

But linebacker Gary Plummer he often has mentioned the team’s chances at making the playoffs for the first time since 1983.

“I talk about it a lot,” he said. “I talked about it on my radio show (Monday) morning. It’s added incentive to play. Some people say, ‘You might put too much pressure on yourself.’ But once you get to the playoffs, there’s a lot of pressure on you. So you might as well prepare yourself early.

“For us, they’re all playoff games from here on out. We have to win a majority of them if we’re going to get there.”

Ross said the Chargers (5-5) should be thinking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their opponent Sunday, rather than the playoffs.

“We’re still a long way away,” Ross said. “We have to be behind a lot of people as far as that opportunity right now.”

Ross almost started to discuss the playoffs, but he quickly backtracked.

“It’s exciting to be at this position . . . I’m not inferring playoffs,” Ross said. “I’m inferring 5-5 with a chance to improve upon our win-loss record.”

With their remaining schedule, the Chargers might have a better chance to improve on their record than any contending AFC playoff team. The six teams left on their schedule have a combined record of 20-40. Four of the six teams the Chargers play are 4-6: the Raiders (twice), Tampa Bay and Cincinnati.

Houston and Kansas City are a game ahead of the Chargers for the last two of the three wild card spots, but both have much tougher schedules. Houston plays teams with combined records of 30-32, including a game at Miami (7-3) Sunday and a home game against Buffalo (8-2) on the final Sunday.

Kansas City also appears to have an easy route to the playoffs. The remaining teams on its schedule are only 21-39, but the Chiefs must travel to the New York Giants (5-5) and the Denver Broncos (7-3) in the last two weeks.

“There’s no doubt that the schedule enters into play,” Plummer said. “But the one thing that everybody has to remember is, there are upsets weeks after week. It doesn’t matter if we have the easiest schedule, it’s not a lock. We’ve been 5-5 before and not made it to the playoffs.”

The Chargers were 5-5 two years ago, but proceeded to win only one of their last six games. Cornerback Gill Byrd, a Charger since 1983, remembers.

“There’s been a lot of talk and no action,” Byrd said. “Talk is cheap.”

Ross was asked if he had anything to do with the Chargers’ resurgence.

“The players are the ones that win the football games and bring the excitement to the fans,” he said. “I’m a spoke in a wheel. I’m a small spoke in a big wheel. Hopefully, we can continue to go.”

Ross was so upset with the unruly behavior in Cleveland’s Dawg Pound, he complained to league officials.

“We also had to deal with the snowballs, which was a little different than what they to deal with,” he said. “I don’t say that in jest. I’ve registered a protest. I think somebody’s going to get hurt, a hard snowball can hit you in the eye. I counted two that hit our quarterback while we were on the line of scrimmage and I counted one that landed about two feet in front of our kicker on the last extra point. That’s significant.

“I think that something really needs to be done there. I’ve called the officials and alerted them to it. It’s in their hands now.”

The Chargers should be fairly healthy for Tampa Bay. Burt Grossman (ankle) and Nate Lewis (hip) are the most serious injuries but both are expected to play.