The 2009-10 San Diego Chargers season started with an uplifting come-from-behind win at Oakland and ended with a thud in a heartbreaking playoff loss to the New York Jets. Here’s a look back at the Chargers’ year: Trailing 20-17 with 2:34 left in their season opener at Oakland, the Chargers launched an 89-yard drive with Darren Sproles running in from five yards for a touchdown with 18 seconds to play for a 24-20 win on Monday Night Football. Despite a career-high 436 passing yards and two touchdowns from quarterback Philip Rivers, the Chargers fall 31-26 in their home-opener to Baltimore when Sproles is stopped in the closing seconds by linebacker Ray Lewis. Following a loss at Pittsburgh and a bye week, San Diego drops to its lowest point of the season in Week 6 with a 34-23 defeat at home against Denver. The Broncos’ Eddie Royal ran back a kickoff return 93 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and added a 71-yard punt return for a score in the second. Denver improved to 6-0, 3 1/2 games ahead of the 2-3 Chargers in the AFC West. LaDainian Tomlinson scored two touchdowns in a 24-16 victory over Oakland in Week 8. It was the Bolts’ 13th straight win over the Raiders. In a series of three key games, the Chargers traveled to New York and beat the Giants 21-20; returned home to defeat Philadelphia 31-23; and won a rematch with the Broncos at Denver, 32-3. Rivers led an 80-yard drive against the Giants, ending with an 18-yard TD pass to Vincent Jackson with 21 seconds to play. Tomlinson ran for a season-high 96 yards and two touchdowns against the Eagles. In a dominant defensive performance against the Broncos in Week 11, the Bolts held Denver to 271 total yards with three forced turnovers and three sacks. San Diego (7-3) took over sole possession of the division lead over the Broncos (6-4). In Week 12 at Qualcomm Stadium, the Chargers crushed Kansas City 43-14 to run their winning streak to six games. Tomlinson scored two TDs while moving into 10th place on the NFL’s all-time rushing list, and tight end Antonio Gates had his 14th career 100-yard receiving game while scoring two touchdowns. The Chargers rolled into Dallas in Week 14 and beat the Cowboys 20-17 as Rivers led two scoring drives in the fourth quarter. Nate Kaeding’s 34-yard field goal put the game away at 20-10 with 1:56 left. In Week 15, Gates caught his fourth TD pass in three games and Kaeding kicked a 52-yard field goal with 3 seconds left to lift the Bolts to a 27-24 home win over Cincinnati. It was San Diego’s ninth consecutive win and clinched the AFC West title for the Chargers, their fourth straight. The Bolts closed out the regular season with wins over Tennessee and Washington, making it 11 straight victories. San Diego came into the AFC Divisional round of the playoffs with a 13-3 record against the New York Jets, who were 10-7. But it was the Jets who advanced to the conference championship with a surprising 17-14 win before 69,498 fans, the largest crowd ever at Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers played the kind of football that was uncharacteristic for them compared to their 11-game winning streak. They dropped passes, missed tackles and committed 10 penalties for 87 yards. Kaeding, on a streak of 20 straight field goals made during the season and 69 in a row from inside the 40, missed three attempts, including a 36-yarder in the first half and one from 40 with 4:38 left to play in the game. Rivers, who threw nine interceptions during the regular season, threw two INTs, including one that set up the Jets go-ahead touchdown, and was sacked twice in the second half. The Chargers were unable to adjust to the Jets defensive switch to man-to-man defense in the last 30 minutes. “You’d like to play your best games in January in games like this, and certainly, for whatever reason, we did not do that today,” Chargers’ coach Norv Turner said. “These games come down to a few plays. There were some great efforts out there. Defensively, I thought we did an awful lot of good things. We made mistakes that we normally don’t and we didn’t do enough good things.”