Chargers Have the Means to Go for It : Offense: San Diego rookie gets key first down as running game makes the difference.

With a 27-20 lead and three minutes remaining in Sunday’s game against the Raiders at the Coliseum, the San Diego Chargers had a gut-check call.

On fourth down and an inch from the Raider 20, instead of attempting a 37-yard John Carney field goal that would have given them a 10-point lead, the Chargers decided to hand the ball to Natrone Means and go for the first down.

A gutsy call if they made it. A dumb one if they fell short and the Raiders came back to win and extended the Chargers’ losing streak to four games.

“It definitely was a huge gamble,” San Diego Coach Bobby Ross said. “But I figured if we had any hopes of being the type of team we wanted to be, we have to be able to make two inches.”

With Means diving over the left side for three yards, the Chargers made the type of statement they hope to make the rest of the season.

“We always talk about finishing plays in order to win football games,” Ross said after the 30-23 victory, “and that play was an example of that.”

The Chargers came to Los Angeles with a 2-4 record and a three-game losing streak, but they left as a team knowing it is resilient enough to come from behind three times to defeat the Raiders on the road.

“This was a real football game out there today,” said Charger running back Ronnie Harmon, who caught five passes for 89 yards. “All the way around. We had to keep playing in order to beat a real good team.”

San Diego, however, did not begin the day like a team ready to prove itself. On the Raiders’ first offensive play of the game, they burned the Chargers with a 71-yard touchdown pass play from Jeff Hostetler to Tim Brown.

Instead of getting down, as they had in earlier games, the Chargers rallied with a nine-play, 78-yard drive. San Diego tied the score on a 29-yard touchdown pass from John Friesz to Anthony Miller.

“That play really gave us the spark we needed,” Ross said. “It was that touchdown, that got us going.”

From there, the Chargers went blow to blow with the Raiders until cornerback Donald Frank came up with the play of game when he ran back an interception 102 yards to give San Diego a 24-17 third-quarter lead.

On the Raiders’ next possession, San Diego linebacker Gary Plummer made a key play when he intercepted a pass intended for tight end Ethan Horton and returned it to the Chargers’ 35-yard line.

Three plays later, Friesz hooked up with Harmon for a 37-yard pass play that led to a 36-yard field goal by Carney to give San Diego a 27-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“After we got the lead, we wanted to keep the pressure on them,” said Friesz, who completed 13 of 25 passes for 162 yards and one touchdown. “But they kept coming back.”

The Raiders did exactly that, cutting the lead to 27-20 when a 21-yard field goal by Jeff Jaeger with 9:55 remaining.

That’s when San Diego put the game away on the ground. Behind Marion Butts, who gained 64 yards in 11 carries, and Means, who gained a game-high 68 in 14 carries, the Chargers held the ball for eight minutes and drove 60 yards before Carney’s 38-yard field goal gave them a 30-20 lead with 1:49 remaining.

“Our line just responded by making the holes we needed,” said Means, a rookie from North Carolina who gained 52 yards in nine carries on the Chargers’ final drive. “When they did that, my job was so much easier.”

Ross also credited the line.

“The significant thing about that last drive for us offensively was that we ate up so much time running the ball,” Ross said. “You have to have a running game that is able to punch the ball over when you need it.”

So, instead of having a 2-5 record with its playoff hopes fading away, the Chargers are now 3-4, which is the same record they had at this point last season when they went on to win the AFC West.

“This was a really important win for us,” said Friesz, who has been playing in place of Stan Humphries. “It also was important for me because I felt that I needed a win in order to keep the starting job.

“I don’t think that I played all that great, but I hung in there. I think I made some plays we had to have in order to win.”