The Chargers will travel across the country this week to play the Giants, who are 5-3 but on a three-game losing streak.

Can the Chargers — who entered this season with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations — take advantage and finally beat a team with a winning record? They couldn’t earlier in the year when a then-struggling Steelers team beat them in Pittsburgh. In fact, San Diego has yet to beat a winning team in three tries this season and is 10-16 against winning teams since 2007, including 3-11 when those games take place on the road.

The San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Sunday’s game at Giants Stadium is, indeed, a defining moment for this Chargers season:

There are certain games that give direction to a season, define a team, make a career.

The Chargers are going to the Big Apple — actually New Jersey, but a big stage nonetheless — to play one of those games.

And no one can dispute it. …

Defensive end Luis Castillo did not hesitate nor hold back when the importance of this Sunday’s game at the New York Giants was brought up.

“This is a heavyweight fight,” Castillo said. “We’ve been in the same position against a great team that’s been struggling a bit. We had a chance to go in there and make a statement, and we didn’t do it. We haven’t done well with those. This is a game we need to step up.”

Other stories from around the Web on Wednesday:

• The slumping Giants are struggling to communicate.

• The Packers are a wild-card team, at best.

• The Patriots are showing more balance on offense.

• Adjusting to the Eagles’ script is the key to the Cowboys having a happy ending.

• Losing at home is testing more than Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt; it’s testing the fans’ patience.

• There is plenty of blame to go around for the Buccaneers’ offensive woes.