If there's any upside to losing your fourth straight game while letting the AFC West slip through your fingers, the Chargers have found it.
A weekend away.
Some time to get their heads straight after a monthlong, wild spiral that started with the team at 4-1 and ended with Thursday's disturbing loss to Oakland, dropping San Diego to 4-5, a game behind the first-place Raiders.
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers shifted into spin mode following the loss.
"It's been worse," Rivers told NBC San Diego. "I feel like a broken record for saying it, but we're 4-5. It's been worse than this before."
Actually, it has been this bad, but not worse. At least not under Rivers. Measuring the win-loss records alone, Rivers' teams have started 4-5 three times since 2006, including this season:
» 2010: 4-5 (finished second in the AFC West at 9-7)
» 2009: 6-3 (finished first at 13-3)
» 2008: 4-5 (finished first at 8-8)
» 2007: 5-4 (finished first at 11-5)
» 2006: 7-2 (finished first at 14-2)
The Chargers have made it a habit of heating up down the stretch, but nothing about this team screams that a massive turnaround is in the mail.
This group of players will gather Monday to reboot a machine that's running on fumes, but first on tap: a free Sunday to do something other than frustrate the greater San Diego area.
"I'm going to get away. Get away from football for a minute," cornerback Quentin Jammer said after relinquishing two touchdowns Thursday. "After a performance like that, you kind of have to regroup. That's what I'll do. ... That's as bad as I could have played in 10 years. I put it out there. Now teams think they are going to beat me. It's not going to happen."