Are Chargers lucky or good? Or both?

I remember a certain head coach explaining that bad things happen to bad teams.

The coach in question was seen by many as a sort of excuse maker, but in this instance he was giving a simple explanation of why his team could not capitalize on fumbles it was forcing but not recovering, among other issues that seemed to comprise a series of blind misfortune.

It seemed at the time that a bounce here or there could have changed the team’s entire season, given that it finished a game out of the division lead and a postseason berth.

One day toward the end of the season, the coach shrugged and said to me, “Bad teams have bad luck.”

It makes sense, then, that good teams have good luck. Right? Maybe teams even create their own luck sometimes.

This Chargers team we are presently being entertained by can be “pathetic” wrapped up in a “disaster” inside a “nightmare.” Those words in quotation marks, by the way, are Mike McCoy’s, describing the Chargers’ first half this past weekend against the San Francisco 49ers.

He also said – as he has many times this season that all that matters is finding a way to win, which the Chargers did in overtime.

In the end, it was a field goal that won Saturday’s game. Along the way there were two fourth-and-long conversions, myriad other clutch plays and five straight drives in which the defense did not allow points.

But the game and the season were saved beginning with a chop block.

The second of two 49ers touchdowns nullified by penalty was a 63-yard reception by Vernon Davis called back because running back Frank Gore went low to block Dwight Freeney, who was already being engaged by a lineman.

Davis’ score would have given San Francisco a 35-14 lead with 3½ minutes remaining in the third quarter. Instead, on the next play, the Chargers forced a fumble on a sack and recovered the ball in the end zone.

“There’s a big play, and you just get a big break every once in a while, and the break went our way,” McCoy said after the game. “Sometimes the ball bounces your way, and sometimes it doesn’t. We were just fortunate at certain times tonight when we needed it the most, it happened. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky.”

It’s quite possible that it is, indeed, better to be lucky than good. And, really, this Chargers team might be both.

With one win-and-they’re-in game remaining, the only pertinent question is this: Can the Chargers make the playoffs when they are so banged up and keep messing up?

If you’re confident in your affirmative answer, it might be the eggnog talking. But what we can say with certainty is that it’s impossible to count the Chargers out, because they keep making plays, even if it seems to be only when they have to.

“We’re going to fight ‘til the end,” safety Eric Weddle said. “Opponents know that. They know you play the Chargers, you better put us away -- and keep putting us way – because we’ll come back.”

He also said: “Great teams have great efforts when the game is on the line.”

We can dicker over the application of the word “great,” because it says here the Chargers are not a great team. But we can’t argue they’ve made it great fun watching them, be it because of their play or their providence. They’re here because they’ve created and received breaks.

Consider what they did Saturday, becoming the first team in the modern era to win a game in which they allowed 355 rushing yards.

They won despite Philip Rivers throwing three interceptions, something they’d never done before.

The Chargers are 2-1 this season in games in which they’ve given the ball away three times or more, the two wins coming in the past five weeks. The rest of the NFL is 24-76.

They also won Saturday despite allowing a defensive touchdown.

Over the past five seasons, 65 percent of the time an NFL team had an interception or fumble returned for a TD, it lost. Saturday was was the second time in five weeks the Chargers won such a game.

They’ve pulled this off, getting themselves to the brink of a second straight postseason berth, with big plays and a remarkable resilience when they absolutely have to have it. Perhaps the best example of that is their red zone defense. After allowing touchdowns a league-high 67 percent of the time their opponent got inside the 20-yard line through nine games, they have allowed TDs on just 37 percent of red zone trips in the past six games.

Really, the Chargers have been pretty shoddy for good portions of the past nine games, during which time they have lost one more game than they’ve won but won what may prove to be enough because in a few of those games they made one more play than their opponent.

They led just the final 38 seconds on Nov. 30 in Baltimore, their most recent victory before Saturday. They needed an interception at the goal line with a minute left to preserve a Nov. 23 victory over St. Louis.

“Good teams find a way to win,” McCoy said. “It’s not always going to be perfect. I’d much rather play that way and win than play lights out and lose.”

Either way, we find out Sunday if this team is good enough.