Raiders, Chargers Warm to the Task With Turnarounds : Pro football: Both teams began 0-4, but they will play at San Diego with the winner thinking about the playoffs.

Four weeks into the season, the Raiders and the San Diego Chargers were dead even.

And dead last.

Playoffs? Super Bowl?

These teams, each 0-4, had a far more modest objective: winning a game, any game.

The Raiders were trying to turn their season around by cutting out their costly turnovers and settling on a quarterback. New San Diego Coach Bobby Ross was trying to find an offense as consistent as his defense.

When the Raiders take on the Chargers here today at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, starting at 5, the teams will still find themselves almost even.

But nobody is calling their playoff chances dead anymore. Certainly not for tonight’s winner.

Since stumbling out of the starting gate, both teams have gotten back in the AFC West race. They are a combined 11-3, the Raiders having won five of seven for a 5-6 mark, the Chargers going 6-1 to improve to 6-5.

So what has been the big difference in San Diego?

“The maturity in our system of Stan Humphries,” Ross said, singling out his quarterback. “He got a better grasp of what we were trying to do. I think he got a better feel of timing on the (pass) routes. I think he got a better feel for our receivers. I think this is the biggest thing, as far as our winning a few football games.”

Few expected the Chargers to become serious contenders after their 0-4 start. But nobody expected Stan Humphries to make them a contender.

Nobody, perhaps, except Humphries and Bobby Beathard.

Humphries had been in the league four years and had been less than spectacular.

A sixth-round draft choice of the Washington Redskins in 1988, Humphries didn’t get any significant playing time until quarterback Mark Rypien was sidelined because of a knee injury in 1990.

Humphries played in seven games that season, throwing three touchdown passes, but having 10 interceptions.

A knee injury also ended Humphries’ 1990 season and he got no playing time last season. Then, last summer, Beathard, who became the Charger general manager after leaving the same post in Washington, rescued Humphries from the Redskins’ sidelines, getting him for a third-round draft choice.

Beathard made the move after John Friesz, projected as the San Diego starter, was sidelined for the season because of a knee injury.

Humphries didn’t get handed the starting job. Bob Gagliano got the first crack, but he cracked in the third quarter of the season opener when an interception by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Kevin Ross was returned 99 yards for a touchdown.

Enter Humphries, who immediately led the Chargers to a touchdown.

And he has been there ever since.

There is little doubt San Diego’s fortunes are linked to Humphries. He completed 53% of his passes with one touchdown and eight interceptions in the first four games and the Chargers lost them all.

But he has completed 61% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and only six interceptions in the last seven games and San Diego is 6-1.

“The key to Stan is believing that he belongs and that he’s the man,” said Bob Lane, his quarterback coach at Northeast Louisiana. “Once he’s convinced, I’m telling you, hold onto your hat.”

But Humphries isn’t the only Charger Ross mentions when assessing the club’s surge.

It all starts with the defense, he says, which is rated the best in the AFC. San Diego has given up only 79.4 yards rushing and 178.1 passing per game for an average total of 257.5.

Right behind the Chargers are the Raiders at 267.4.

The Chargers’ success should come as no surprise because the architect of the San Diego defense is Bill Arnsparger, who put together the No-Name Defense for the Miami Dolphins in the 1970s and Miami’s Killer B’s in the ‘80s.

His defenses were first or second in the NFL in points given up in nine of his 11 full seasons with the Dolphins.

Arnsparger does not have a no-name defense in San Diego. Linebacker Junior Seau, linemen Leslie O’Neal and Chris Mims, and cornerback Gill Byrd have made big names for themselves.

Arnsparger has had the talent to work with and, as a result, the biggest change from previous Charger defenses is simplification. Rather than using a lot of intricate schemes, Arnsparger has reduced it to basics and let his talent excel.

“They are playing more together,” said Raider quarterback Jay Schroeder, who will try to find some holes in that defense today. “Arnsparger has let the talent take over. They just tell everybody, ‘We’re going to be here. Come and get us.’ ”

The Raiders and Chargers will be playing for a possible playoff spot.

Who would have believed it?

Eight weeks ago, only the true believers.