Mistakes Driven Into Raiders’ Heart : Pro football: Chargers improve playoff chances with 27-3 victory. Dickerson gets 100 yards in first half, but lapses thwart L.A.

Think San Diego Chargers. Think defense.

Think they could stop the Raiders Sunday night? Think again.

The Chargers hadn’t given up 100 yards to a running back in 23 games.

Eric Dickerson had that much by halftime.

The Chargers had given up a league-low 79.4 yards rushing per game.

The Raiders nearly doubled that total with 154 yards.

The Chargers had given up a conference-low 257.5 yards overall per game.

The Raiders exceeded that by nearly 70 with 324 yards.

So the Raiders beat the Chargers Sunday night?

Think again.

Final score: San Diego 27, Raiders 3.

“We forgot one thing,” Raider quarterback Jay Schroeder said. “We forgot to put the ball in the end zone.”

Actually it wasn’t a lapse of memory that kept the Raiders out of the end zone on a long, frustrating night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

It was all the other lapses--offensive lapses, defensive lapses and special teams lapses.

“They obviously wanted it more than we did,” a disheartened Tim Brown said.

It didn’t appear that way at the start.

This seemed to be the last chance for the Raiders to have a realistic shot at a postseason berth.

They were facing a tough, young defensive team that had won six of its previous seven games. They were facing a club that has put up a stone wall against the run.

Yet the Raiders came out free and loose.

They ran into the teeth of that tough defense. They hit the clutch passes. They picked up the first downs. And they gobbled up yardage, much to the surprise of the crowd of 59,894.

But the Raiders quickly realized it might all go for naught.

Their first clues:

--Their opening drive ended with a blocked field goal.

--Their second drive ended with an interception that went through the intended receiver without touching him.

--Their fourth drive ended with a fumble.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Raiders saw San Diego fumble at the end of a scoring drive, only to have the Chargers recover in the end zone for a touchdown.

It was one of those nights.

After Jeff Jaeger’s 38-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by Kevin Murphy, the Raiders put together another drive that crossed midfield.

From the Charger 48-yard line, Schroeder threw a pass to Willie Gault on the left side.

On the replay, it appeared that San Diego defensive back Sean Vanhorse wrapped his arms around Gault before the ball arrived and then batted it past the helpless receiver.

“I never even touched the ball,” Gault said. “He came over and hit the ball through my arm. He swiped it away before I had a chance to touch it. I didn’t know what happened.”

What happened was that defensive back Stanley Richard grabbed the ball an inch from the turf for a drive-killing interception.

The Chargers drove to the Raider 20 in six plays. From there, Marion Butts, the Chargers’ leading rusher Sunday with 71 yards in 16 carries, raced off left guard and broke five tackles on his way to the end zone.

Tackled two yards short, Butts lost the football. It bounced into the end zone, where Anthony Miller fell on it to give San Diego its first touchdown.

Jaeger put the Raiders on the scoreboard in the second period with a 36-yard field goal.

But the Chargers pulled away to a 14-3 lead on the next drive, Butts going over from one yard out.

Butts got credit for the touchdown, but he would be the first to give most of the credit to teammate Ronnie Harmon.

On the previous play, on a second and 13 from the Raider 46, San Diego quarterback Stan Humphries fired a pass to Harmon, who was coming out of the backfield. He caught the ball with his left hand, steadied it with his right and then raced down the right sideline until he was finally shoved out of bounds at the one by Torin Dorn.

Back came the Raiders.

Another drive.

Another turnover.

This one came at the end of a 10-play drive. With a first down at the San Diego 29, Schroeder connected with Brown. But Brown was hit by Junior Seau, separating Brown from the ball.

“I was just caught in an awkward position,” Brown said. “I reached down low to catch the ball and I never had a chance to stand up. I didn’t have a chance to put it away.”

The Chargers used the opportunity to put the game away after Seau recovered the fumble. Humphries hit Shawn Jefferson with a 15-yard touchdown pass to give San Diego a 21-3 with 16 seconds left in the first half.

In the second half, the Raiders found themselves lacking the one key ingredient they needed to get back in the game: the ball.

Although they didn’t score in the third quarter, the Chargers managed to hold onto the ball for so long, the Raiders got only six plays, one of those a punt.

In the fourth quarter, John Carney padded the final score with field goals from 27 and 21 yards.

Dickerson finished the game with 103 yards rushing, becoming the second man in NFL history to exceed 13,000 yards for his career.

But, in the end, it didn’t matter.

By winning, the Chargers (7-5) find themselves in the thick of the race for a wild-card spot with a bona fide shot at the division title.

By losing, the Raiders (5-7) find themselves reduced to using words like miracle, longshot and mathematical possibility when discussing their playoff chances.

Brown summed it up.

“Now we’ve got to find other reasons to go out there and play the games.”