Keep it simple. That seems to be Raiders interim head coach Tony Sparano’s plan, and it almost worked out of the gate. His 0-5 Oakland team was beating 5-1 San Diego 28-24 with two minutes remaining Sunday.

The Chargers scored and the Raiders committed the only turnover of the game (an interception with 1:13 remaining), so it was back to basics Monday.

“Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of that one, but if those guys give me that kind of effort going forward, this thing is going to turn,” Sparano said.

Sparano had offensive and defensive coordinators Greg Olson and Jason Tarver throw out a bunch of pages from their playbook against the Chargers. They might shred some more before Sunday’s home game against the Cardinals (4-1).

“Our menu was much shorter than it has been, on both sides of the ball,” Sparano said. “And the kids played faster, and that was a positive.”

Derek Carr threw four touchdown passes, and receivers Andre Holmes and Brice Butler flashed their big-play ability, as Olson made it a focus to attack downfield more often. That opened up the running game for Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew, as the Raiders ran for a season-high 114 yards at 5.7 yards a pop.

“We kept them on their heels, so they couldn’t be that aggressive,” Jones-Drew said. “And when they were aggressive, we found some creases. We started getting comfortable.

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“We played well, but they didn’t turn the ball over and we did, and there it is.”

Sparano said McFadden and Jones-Drew “ran very hard” and also praised the offensive line’s job of double-teaming Chargers on certain plays.

The defense gave up 31 points and got the ball run down its throat on the game-winning drive, but Sparano saw some positives.

“I thought we tackled better and had more people to the football this game than we had in the last several games,” Sparano said. “I thought we challenged the ball … knocked a few balls out of there (in coverage). We did let a few balls get over our head.”

He said players still need to work on fitting the right gaps, in both their pass rushes and their run-stop attempts.

“The distance between the chairs there,” Sparano said, pointing to a space of about a foot and a half, “makes a huge difference in your fit. … We also have to win one-on-one matchups.”

San Diego players were impressed.

“You have to give credit to Oakland,” safety Eric Weddle said. “They played an outstanding game. They didn’t make many mistakes, played well on all three phases, kept us on our heels.”

Can the Raiders do it again against Arizona? As Sparano mentioned, the Raiders played very well in a 16-9 loss in New England on Sept. 21, then followed it by stinking in a blowout loss to the Dolphins in London.

“Our guys are well aware of that right now,” Sparano said. “I made that perfectly clear to them. We have to correct it and demand it, and coaches and players have to take responsibility.”

Briefly: Cornerback DJ Hayden (foot) will come off the physically unable to perform list and return to practice Wednesday. … Sparano said second-year right tackle Menelik Watson, starting in place of injured Khalif Barnes, “graded out very well.”

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur