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Chargers must take one final step

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They have climbed this sheer mountainside, slipping a few times only to catch themselves just when it seemed a plummet to their death was certain.

Watching, we’ve occasionally gasped in horror. We predicted more than once that they’d never make it.

They started so strong then were obviously weakened, bruised repeatedly as the ascent grew arduous. Yet they steeled themselves time and again, their grip tenuous but their grasp stubborn.

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Somehow, they’ve arrived here, on the verge of the summit.

It’s no longer a faraway goal. The next plateau is within reach. So close, if still one perilous leap away.

We watch now, breath held, impressed by they’ve accomplished.

The next step will determine how the entire journey is remembered.

Win Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chargers are in the playoffs.

“If we find a way to get in we’ll be well-tested, weathered, been through it all, tested in every way,” Philip Rivers said. “We’ll be a team that earned it.”

Lose and …

“It’s a failure,” Eric Weddle said. “Bottom line, we didn’t get it done, we didn’t do enough, we weren’t good enough.”

For all the comebacks and injuries overcome, the difficult opponents both beaten by and beaten, how the Chargers and their fans feel about the season come Sunday afternoon will be determined by this -- one game at the end, again against the Chiefs, this time at their stadium.

So many times in this season – throughout a 5-1 start, through a three-game losing streak and then the four victories in the past six games – various Chargers players have referred to how “special” this group is, how they have a chance to achieve so much and don’t want to blow it.

“We have the right amount of love and caring for each other that’s not weird,” Rivers said.

Sure, we’ve heard this sort of talk from virtually every team, every season. Rivers, for one, has believed every team he’s ever been on is special. He was shocked each of the three years the Chargers didn’t make the playoffs. But he and others talk about the unique resilience this group fostered in making the postseason in Mike McCoy’s first year as their head coach and how that spirit has matured.

It’s difficult to argue they don’t have some sort of extraordinary quality after last Saturday’s comeback from down 21 points at halftime and 14 to start the fourth quarter, not to mention the 10-point fourth-quarter deficit overcome Nov. 30 in Baltimore and the last-minute interception at the goal line to preserve a victory over St. Louis a week before that.

It’s impossible to diminish what they’ve accomplished without Nick Hardwick (and with his four replacements), without Danny Woodhead, mostly without Ryan Mathews, missing Melvin Ingram for the middle of the season and Jason Verrett for the final two-thirds.

Yet, after all that, there is need for one more push.

All week, that’s what the talk inside Chargers Park has been about.

“It’s going to be insane -- that atmosphere, what they’re going to bring,” Weddle said, looking ahead to Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. “It’s got to be everything you’ve done and more for this opportunity.”

They have it for the taking, or one final fall. One game, a chasm of difference based on the result.

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