The Oakland Raiders entered the 2008 season hoping they could challenge the standing of the San Diego Chargers in the AFC West.

As the two prepare to face off on Thursday night at Qualcomm Stadium, the Raiders have achieved that goal. Too bad the position they'll be vying for in Week 14 is second place in the worst division in football.

Of all the negative on-field stories in the NFL this season, the consistently poor play of the Chargers has perhaps been the most stunning.

A consensus favorite to run away with the division this season, one year after going 11-5 and advancing to the AFC Championship Game, Norv Turner's club has instead endured a precipitous fall from grace that has all but eliminated the team's chance to return to the postseason.

San Diego's 22-16 home loss to the upstart Atlanta Falcons last Sunday was the team's fifth defeat in its last six games, with the only victory over that stretch a narrow 20-19 affair over the two-win Kansas City Chiefs.

The Bolts are 4-8 in their second season under Turner, and after averaging more than 11 wins per season between 2004 and 2007, are now just one defeat away from their first losing record since going 4-12 in 2003.

A sharp decline in production from future Hall-of-Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson has been San Diego's most identifiable problem during the campaign.

After rushing for at least 1,200 yards in each of his first seven seasons in the league, Tomlinson (794 yards) is on pace for just 1,059 in 2008. The perennial All-Pro's 3.7 yards per carry are the fewest since his rookie season of 2001, and he is on pace for fewer than 10 touchdowns after averaging better than 18 per year over his first seven seasons.

The 29-year-old Tomlinson, who has repeatedly claimed that his health is not an issue, comes off a week in which he was held to 24 yards on 14 carries by the Falcons, and has reached 100 rushing yards just twice all season.

The San Diego defense has not done the team many favors either. The Chargers enter Week 14 ranked 27th in the league in total defense (367.6 yards per game), 31st against the pass (260.6 yards per game), and only one team has allowed more than the team's 21 touchdown passes surrendered.

Like the Chargers, the Raiders have also suffered through a miserable 2008 campaign, although theirs comes as far less of a surprise.

Last week, Oakland failed to follow up a stunning 31-10 win at first-place Denver the Sunday before, falling by a 20-13 count at home to help the Chiefs snap a seven-game losing streak.

The loss clinched the Silver and Black's sixth consecutive losing season, and the 3-9 Raiders are now just one defeat away from a sixth straight year of double-digit losses.

Since reaching the Super Bowl following the 2002 season, the Raiders are 22-70 (.239), the worst record in the league over that span. Interim head coach Tom Cable, who has gone 2-5 since taking over following Lane Kiffin's firing, is the fifth coach the once-proud team has employed in the past six seasons.

SERIES HISTORY

Oakland has a 54-41-2 record in its all-time regular season series with San Diego, but has lost the last 10 in a row to the Chargers, including a 28-18 home loss in Week 4 and home-and-home sweeps in every year from 2004 through 2007. The Raiders' last win in the series was a 34-31 overtime triumph at home in 2003, and they are 0-5 in San Diego since last winning there in 2002.

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