Dwight Lowery remembers Qualcomm Stadium in its heyday.

He was there.

The Chargers safety was a New York Jet visiting San Diego for a “Monday Night Football” game in 2008 and AFC Divisional Round playoff game in 2009. He can recall being taken aback by the atmosphere, the crowd of blue and white, the noise. This environment, he thought, was everything a road game should be.

Lowery has played in San Diego this season for the first time since.


It’s not what he remembers.

“When you knew you were playing the San Diego Chargers in San Diego, you felt that electricity, that charge,” Lowery said. “It’s different now. You don’t feel that charge. … It’s hard to believe, being here all these years later.”

The Chargers will host the Raiders on Sunday, but it likely will be a home game in name only. The team practiced this week while blaring artificial crowd noise from its on-field speakers. With a barrage of Raiders fans expected to attend, the offense anticipates needing to use the silent count in spurts.

This is for a home game.


“Home.”

Truth is, Qualcomm hasn’t felt like much of one in 2016, and it hasn’t for some time. Take your pick among the reasons why, be it the franchise’s recent win-loss record or failed January relocation attempt, the stadium’s outdated facilities, the financial cost to attend or the general year-to-year uncertainty of where the organization will be.

Those are but a few.

A large turnout of visiting fans is nothing new at a Chargers game, and this week wasn’t the first in which artificial noise was used before a home game. That said, the team is expecting Sunday more opposing fans at a Chargers home game than any in recent memory.


“We’re going to treat it like a bowl game,” cornerback Casey Hayward said. “When you go to a bowl game, it’ll be 50-50 in there; it’ll be loud on either side. So hopefully, our fans who are there make a lot of noise for us when we’re on defense.”

“We know what we’re walking into,” tight end Hunter Henry said. “I think I heard the game is sold out, but I don’t know how many of our fans will be there. It’ll be a fun atmosphere. I’m ready to go.”

That “bring it on” sentiment is fairly prevalent within the locker room. So is another: Home crowds at Qualcomm are abnormally bipartisan relative to other NFL stadiums, a trend that is nothing of which to be proud.

Lowery attempted to be careful with his words, he said, in respect for those who do support the team. But his strong opinion about home turnouts is by no means unique to him.


“That aspect of it is very embarrassing,” Lowery said. “It’s embarrassing and it sucks. It sucks because had our team won some more games, it probably wouldn’t be that way. If we were in a position to make the playoffs, it may or may not be like this. But the Raiders and Chargers, from what I understand, is the biggest rivalry in the AFC West as far as that genuine hatred. And for the Raiders fans to dominate the stadium of the home team in the rivalry, that part of it is embarrassing.

“It’s a good thing we have a team that has good chemistry and is close because when we go to road games, in some ways, I think we play better on the road than at home. Maybe that’s atmosphere. Who knows what it is? Talking to some guys who have been here, it’s not encouraging when we got to go on silent count at home. No other stadium, at least that I’ve been to and played at, is like that. Based upon that, you can’t call the Chargers organization crazy in terms of staying or going.”

The Chargers average 55,488 fans at home games this season.

That attendance ranks last in the NFL and is down from 66,772 in 2015. Some of the 16.9 percent drop can be accounted to the schedule; marquee franchises like the Steelers and Bears visited last year, drawing a higher number of visitor fans. Late in the fourth quarter of the Steelers game on “Monday Night Football,” opposing fans were so loud the Chargers turned to the silent count instead of their usual snap cadence.


Afterward, quarterback Philip Rivers said crowd noise “did not affect the outcome, … but it was unique to say the least.”

Despite the Chargers hosting fewer high-profile teams this season, the turnout dynamic at Qualcomm has been such that, even against the cross-country Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 4 during the most recent home game, road fans have consumed a considerable portion of the crowd.

The Chargers do not expect to be in the silent count all afternoon Sunday.

Their need to inaudibly snap the ball will be based on game flow and what the team can do to take Raiders fans out of the game. The offense regularly uses the silent count on the road, including last Sunday in Charlotte, so the practice is nothing new. It’ll just be a different in terms of relying upon it against the same divisional opponent twice in one season.


On Oct. 9, the Chargers used their silent cadence versus Raiders edge rushers Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin in Oakland.

They will again in San Diego.

“Even though it’s going to be loud in there for us, it’s not going to be like going to Seattle or Kansas City,” center Matt Slauson said. “It’s just going to feel like a normal away game for us. Playing up in Seattle and Kansas City, that can get miserable. Just trying to make a call to the guy to your left or the guy to your right, and they’re like, ‘What?’

“It isn’t going to be like that. We are going to have noise. We are going to have to go silent cadence. But we’re still going to be able to communicate the way we need to. I’m not worried about it.”


Said right tackle Joe Barksdale: “We’re playing for each other. We’ve always played for each other. We’re going to continue to play for each other.”

The stakes are different between the teams.

The Chargers are 5-8. Mathematically, they aren’t eliminated from the playoffs, but that can change Saturday evening if the Dolphins beat the Jets in New Jersey. Playoff ineligibility is all but a formality at this point; the team’s regular season will end on Jan. 1 against the Chiefs.

The Raiders, meanwhile, are 10-3.


They can clinch a playoff berth with a win, something their fans are prepared in droves to celebrate. As of Friday afternoon, the game was not a sellout, a team official said.

“They’re bodies in the stadium. Atmosphere. That’s what matters,” nose tackle Damion Square said. “I would love for all those jerseys to be navy (blue) and white and whatever color they want to be for the San Diego Chargers. But at the same time, you just want atmosphere. Opposing team fans, that’s better than no fans. You want a home-field advantage. You want the ‘12th Man,’ which is the crowd to affect the team.

“But at the end of the day, you want atmosphere. The fact that we’ll have a great atmosphere, regardless of the jersey color of fans or who they’re rooting for, we can appreciate that as football players.”

The Chargers will have an atmosphere Sunday, all right.


Just not the one Lowery remembers.

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michael.gehlken@sduniontribune.com


Twitter: @SDUTgehlken