Since November 1990, the Cincinnati Bengals have won as many games in the postseason as they have in California.

They are 1-4 in the playoffs, and 1-12 in the Golden State during that span.

But the Bengals enter today’s game in San Diego on a three-game winning streak and in control of their destiny. And those facts, according to head coach Marvin Lewis, are far more relevant than the 2,000 miles it takes to get to San Diego or the 3,296 days it’s been since the last time his team won a game in California, which ironically was against the Chargers on Nov. 23, 2003.

“There is no reasoning,” Lewis said when asked about the team’s struggles in the Pacific Time Zone. “If that were the case, a West Coast team could never come to the East Coast and win, because they have to do that more often than we have to go to the West Coast. If your team is better, you win. If your team doesn’t play as well, you lose. Plain and simple.

“I don’t think it matters whether we play them here or play them in sunny San Diego,” Lewis added. “Our job is to go beat their tails this week.”

As poor as their record has been in California, the Bengals did get a jolt of travel confidence on an even longer road trip last year, winning 34-12 in Seattle.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the long flight,” cornerback Leon Hall said. “I think it’s just using the West Coast as an excuse.”

The Chargers (4-7) have not exactly protected their home turf, losing three of their last four at Qualcomm Stadium and six of their last seven overall.

“It’s been a hard year,” San Diego coach Norv Turner said. “It’s been hard on everybody. We go through stretches where we play awfully well, we just have a tough time sustaining it. You want to be able to find a way to play a complete game and eliminate the bad, negative plays, but we haven’t been able to do it.”

But as slim as the Chargers’ chances are, they are still mathematically alive for the playoffs. In fact, since the NFL expanded to its current 12-team playoff system, only three teams have qualified for the postseason after a 4-7 start, and two are the 1995 and 2008 Chargers.

“They’re still playing for something,” defensive back Chris Crocker said. “It’s not going to be a walk-through. It’s going to be a hard game.”

The Bengals’ resurgent run game, which has rolled up 410 yards the last two weeks, will be tested by a San Diego defense that ranks 10^th overall and fifth against the rush.

“They’re giving up a few more points lately, but they’ve been playing pretty sound defense,” Lewis said. “They’re good against the run, they get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. It really comes down to doing a great job up front on both sides of the line of scrimmage, just as we’ve been talking about doing over the last month.”

Quarterback Andy Dalton will look to continue his hot streak that has seen him throw nine touchdowns and no interceptions during the current three-game winning streak.

He will be without rookie wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, who was likely lost for the year when he suffered a stress fracture in his left foot during Thursday’s practice. But fellow rookie Marvin Jones and Andrew Hawkins have recovered from their knee injuries and should give Dalton a couple of extra receiving options should the Chargers elect to throw double coverage at A.J. Green the way the Raiders did last week.

“They do a good job of holding the safeties on rotations and not letting you know which way to drop,” Dalton said. “You have to know your keys. Their corners are guys who have been around for awhile.”

The Chargers have returned four interceptions for touchdowns, and they also have a fumble recovery for a score.

But San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers has had his own struggles with turnovers, throwing 14 interceptions, one shy of the league-leading 15 tossed by Dallas’Tony Romo.

The Chargers rank 25^th in total offense, and a big reason for their struggles is a banged-up offensive line that has had trouble run blocking and pass blocking. San Diego averages 3.8 yards per rush, and the team has allowed 32 sacks, which ranks 26^th in the league.

The Bengals are second in the NFL with 35 sacks, so they should be able to keep Rivers from getting too comfortable in the pocket.

“Phil Rivers is a very, very good quarterback,” Lewis said. “He is a tough guy, a guy that stands in there and delivers the football accurately in many different ways. He does a great job with the cadence and the hard counts and everything, so we have to be very conscious of that.”

The last time the Bengals visited San Diego, they rallied from a 10-point deficit to tie the game with less than a minute to go, only to watch Rivers get the Chargers in position for Nate Kaeding’s game-winning 52-yard field goal with three seconds remaining.

It was yet another Bengals loss in California.

“Our guys don’t care because most of them weren’t here,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t matter. You go play the game. We’ll play it outside in the parking lot of Longworth Hall, and we’ll be ready to play.”