This is Chargers’ biggest Sunday yet

Seven more Sundays.

There are seven more Sundays in which the Chargers take the field this year, each which the potential to define or cripple a season.

There's a rematch with the Broncos, a night game with the Patriots, and an afternoon in Miami, where San Diego hasn't won for 33 years.

So when you look at the docket, you might ask yourself: What's the biggest Sunday left for this Chargers team?

And the answer is easy. It's this one. It's the one where the Bolts don't play at all.

San Diego's season is halfway done and its roster is halfway depleted. Talk to 12-year veteran Antonio Gates, and he'll struggle to recall a time when any team he played on was this banged up.

The secondary was decimated against Denver on Thursday, a fourth-string running back started his fourth straight game, and an ineffective pass rush was again incomplete. The injury bug is one thing, but this has been the injury black widow.

So in many ways for the Chargers, this weekend was like that glorious nap you take after pulling an all-nighter for that mid-term. Maybe, just maybe they can come back looking more like themselves.

"We all need to get away," Chargers safety Eric Weddle said. "Just to get our bodies back."

Weddle said he planned to wrestle with his son and jump on the trampoline over the weekend. That may be the most physically exhausting itinerary among anybody on the Chargers.

Asked how they foresaw spending their time off before returning to the practice facility Monday, the Bolts' refrain was universal -- doing as little as possible.

Guard Johnnie Troutman was just going to sit around and watch football. Linebacker Dwight Freeney's primary objective was to stay off his feet.

Center Rich Rich Ohrnberger laughed when asked what his weekend intentions were, as if there were any possible alternative to his plan.

"Rest," he said. "I'm resting my body."

One weekend, of course, is no panacea for this infirmary of a roster. But given how next Sunday's game against the Dolphins will be the only time the Chargers play in a 23-day span, a return to something at least resembling full-strength may not be far off. And when that happens, we may finally get a glimpse as to how capable this team truly is.

There have been moments this season when it looked as though this San Diego squad was equipped to make the kind of run we haven't seen for two decades. The Chargers (5-3) dominated Seattle and won four straight games by at least two scores.

But when the Bolts' quality of competition increased, their quality of play dipped. A two-game losing streak raises questions as to whether San Diego is among the league's best or still outside that first-class fraternity.

We do know, however, is that a healthy Brandon Flowers and Jason Verrett gives the Chargers a more-than-formidable secondary. We do know that Melvin Ingram's return would beef up the pass rush and that a healthy Manti Te'o would shore up the front seven.

We do know that Ryan Mathews at full-strength would add a dynamic to a running that went MIA in Denver Thursday night. And while you could argue that the Chargers have struggled against the league's best teams, it's clear that those teams haven't seen them at their best.

San Diego can't be too down about its season so far. Considering they had five wins through 12 games last year and made the playoffs, having five through eight is plenty to be optimistic about.

Still, as Miami looms they are dangerously close to heading into the bye week on a three-game skid and just one game above .500.

As Freeney said Friday: "We have to get this going."

He's right. But the first step is to spend some time doing nothing at all.