SAN DIEGO -- One of Bill Callahan's priorities during his first offseason was repairing the Raiders run defense. He signed Chargers run-stopping defensive tackle John Parrella. He brought in Rod Woodson to settle the secondary from the free safety position. He incorporated some 3-4 defensive schemes.

And, when things looked shaky during the summer, Callahan brought in two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Sam Adams. All of a sudden, what looked to be a weakness is becoming a strength. On Sunday in Qualcomm Stadium, the Raiders formed a silver-and-black wall at the line of scrimmage in trying to stop Chargers halfback LaDainian Tomlinson, who burned them for 153 yards on 39 carries Oct. 20.

Tomlinson gained only 57 yards on 18 carries, and the Raiders pulled away in the second half with a 27-7 victory Sunday. Timing is everything. On Monday night, the Raiders held Jets halfback Curtis Martin to 26 yards on 11 carries. Over the final three weeks of the season, the Raiders face Ricky Williams of the Dolphins, Clinton Portis of the Broncos and Priest Holmes of the Chiefs.

The Raiders' run to a Super Bowl may be determined how well their defense can stop the run.

	Callahan

"It's the type of game we wanted to play against one of the top rushing offenses in the league," Callahan said. "I thought what our defense did was dominate in respect to holding Tomlinson under 60 yards."

Basically, the Raiders "walled" in Tomlinson by using more eight-man fronts than the run blitzes that they tried in the first meeting. That's not exactly rocket science because teams would be crazy not to use eight-man fronts against the Chargers. They are limited with their passing attack, and have a basic running attack.

"The Chargers aren't real complicated," Rod Woodson said. "From Week 1 to Week 12, the Chargers come out of formations and, when they run to power set, they run the same power play. They try to out tosses. They try the throw backs. That's it. They don't run too much more. They try to beat mano-a-mano. All you've got to do is understand defense and understand the system."

And be physical because what limited plays the Chargers run, they run well. The Raiders had an interesting dilemma coming into this game. Their entire secondary was too hurt to practice this week. Starting cornerback Charles Woodson couldn't practice and was inactive because of an ankle injury. Cornerback Tory James had a bad ankle. Rod Woodson (knee) and strong safety Derrick Gibson (calf) sat out most practices. Yet, for this physical game, those who played were mentally sharp.

"We had a lot of film study this week and that helped us being more into doing our assignments," James said.

	“	Our focus was putting on as many hits on him all day long as we possibly good. I've never met a running back that enjoyed getting it. And we put some good hits on him. He's a tough back. ”
		— Bill Romanowski on LaDainian Tomlinson

Overall, the Raiders were smart about their efforts. Their tackling was much crisper than the first meeting against the Chargers. Along with securing the tackles, Raiders linebackers, particularly Bill Romanowski, tried to get an extra, clean hit on Tomlinson to let him know it was going to be a long day.

"We knew going in we had to stop him," Romanowski said. "Our focus was putting on as many hits on him all day long as we possibly good. I've never met a running back that enjoyed getting it. And we put some good hits on him. He's a tough back."

The statement was made early. Tomlinson's first run was for zero yards. He gained two on the second. On the fourth play of the game, Tomlinson dropped a pass before being hit by linebacker Eric Barton. This was AFC West turf war and Tomlinson was the target.

How tough was the day going to be for Tomlinson? He broke the Chargers single-season rushing record by passing Natrone Means at 1,350 yards early in the fourth quarter. On his next carry, a fourth-and-1, Tomlinson took a pitch to his left and the entire Raiders defense met him for a 3-yard loss. Tomlinson had to come back the next series and get the record again.

"We didn't run a lot of eight-man fronts in the first game," Adams said. "In that game, we did a lot of blitzing. In the eight-man front, every man has his gap. And you have to play aggressive."

Callahan said linebackers pressed the line of scrimmage to create a wall to stop Tomlinson.

"When you talk about run entry and you talk about stymieing the run and eliminating gaps and space," Callahan said. "That's what I felt we did today. We call our schedule 'Murderous Row.' This is another step forward. It's another step in our progression of shutting down some of the top backs in this league. I don't know if we'll shut down Ricky Williams and Priest Holmes. When you try to create balance, and you're trying to create another dimension to your offense, it's a little bit rare in that respect."

The weird part about this Raiders team is: How do they practice against the run? Offensively, this team is all pass. Rich Gannon threw 41 passes compared to 25 runs. Tyrone Wheatley was the leading rusher with a mere 28 yards.

With the run taken away, Chargers quarterback Drew Brees was a little lost. He threw three costly interceptions that led to 10 Raiders points. And, it's funny, when you look at the stats, it appeared to be a great offensive day, but it really wasn't. Gannon threw for 328, his NFL record 10th 300-yard day and after the game he was mentally beating himself up because of some bad decision-making.

Jerry Rice caught seven passes for 113 yards, but he had three drops early in the game. He had two drops in a second quarter three-and-out. Gannon is still kicking himself about three consecutive three-and-outs in the first half.

"It probably wasn't one of my better days, but I did a good job protecting the football," said Gannon, whose uniform was clean and his offense didn't have a turnover. "There were about four or five plays I made bad choices."

The Raiders jumped to a 10-0 lead, but let the Chargers hang around by the third quarter and trail only 13-7. Then came the decision of the game. Rice had a one-on-one for a slant pass against rookie cornerback Quentin Jammer. Rice took the play 56 yards and the Raiders scored a touchdown five plays later to open a 20-7 lead.

"You get a little frustrated when you're working hard and things aren't happening for you," Rice said. "You have to keep your mind in the game and hope that things will turn around. You just keep working. I'm a professional and I take a lot of pride in what I do. Today, I didn't play my best football game, but I fought my way out of it, and I feel like this game will pay off for me down the road."

The game certainly paid off for the Raiders. They are peaking at the right time. They are on a five-game winning streak and have the AFC's best record at 9-4. They have a one-game lead over the Chargers and two-game lead over the Broncos in the AFC West. This might be the Super Bowl run that everyone expected from the Raiders, but they still have a bunch of talented running backs in their way for the next three weeks.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.