Miami Dolphins vs. San Diego Chargers, Postgame Quotes, November 17, 2013 Miami Dolphins Head Coach Joe Philbin OPENING STATEMENT: “I thought it was a good team win. I thought our guys played hard. We thought that, going into the game that this would be, on paper, that there was going to be a close football game that both teams played, had to have in the past nine games. We knew that we’d have to make some plays in the fourth quarter. That’s been the story of our season. Today, it’s nice for our guys to have made some plays.” (On the play of the offensive line) – “I thought they did a good job. We’ve got a good, hard-working group of guys. We’ve taken a lot of flack. They keep working, they keep their mouths shut, and go to work every single day. I thought they did some good things.” (On what tonight’s win means for the team) – “I told the team in the locker room after the Tampa Bay game that you either have faith and confidence in one another or you don’t. You can’t swing back and forth based on a particular outcome or a single game. I felt confident that these guys would come out, play hard, and play like a team, and they did.” (On the play of DE Cameron Wake) – “We talk about making plays in the fourth quarter. It’s something that we’ve preached, we’ve talked about. Last night we talked about finishing, finishing, finishing, and finding a way, somehow, some way, whether it’s offense, defense, special teams, a combination thereof, to make plays when they count.” (On the play of TE Charles Clay) – “One of the things was we have to break more tackles. We’ve got to break more tackles. Whether it be the running backs or it be the receivers catching the ball, tight ends, we’ve got to make some things on our own. We’ve struggled – let’s put it on the table – to make real big, explosive plays and we need more of them. Sometimes you just have to have a player decide that he’s going to break some tackles and kind of make it on his own. I mean, that was probably what, a seven or eight yard completion, I don’t have the tape…it wasn’t a long pass, but he made it.” (On the team’s play in the second half of the game) – “It felt like the tempo. Our defensive line and front seven played a better tempo in the second half. The first half, they were kind of gaining five yards on a rush, and their quarterback had a lot of time to make decisions and release the football. I thought the second half – we didn’t sack him a ton, but we made him move his feet, made him shuffle around a little bit, and I think that helped us.” (On what his message to the team was after the win) – “The same thing I said earlier. I reminded them of the conversation back in Tampa. There’s a lot of football left to be played. Our season’s been dictated by how well we’ve played in the fourth quarter. We’ve got a competitive group of guys. We’re professional. We’ve got an excellent football team coming in here, maybe one of the hottest teams in football next week, and we have to find a way to improve and get better. Similar message.” (On the situation with C Mike Pouncey and the decision to switch T Nate Garner to center and C Sam Brenner at left guard) – “Like any other decision we’ve made, we’re looking to find the 46 guys that we feel give us the best chance to win football games and that was the lineup that we felt would give us that chance. I credit Mike [Sherman, offensive coordinator] and the offensive coaches for getting those guys ready to go.” (On C Mike Pouncey not starting the game) – “We made the decision to take it all the way up [until deadline] to get as much information as we can.” (On comments players may make to Ted Wells) – “I’m not going to make any comments about the review until it’s complete.” (On comments made by Jonathan Martin) – “Again, that falls under the category of the review and I will not be making any comments until it’s done.” (On the last two weeks) – “We didn’t play well at the start in Tampa. We didn’t finish in the fourth quarter. Tampa looks like they played pretty well today. These guys go to work every single day. You’ve got your 16 regular season games that are on your schedule. We’re all professionals. We all have a job to do. We come to work. When we walk into that building, it has to be about football, it has to be about improving, it has to be about being a team. Nothing changed.” (On his reaction to what players might say in the investigation) – “I’m not going to speak for anybody else.” Miami Dolphins G Sam Brenner (On how it feels to move from being inactive to a starting role with the team) – “I was just really grateful for the opportunity, that these coaches gave me this opportunity to come up and play tonight, the opportunity to make this team better and to contribute to a win. I was just really excited about that.” (On how difficult it was to get ready for the transition from practice squad, and preparing to start or play in a reserve role) – “That’s the hard thing about being on practice squad is you’ve got to be able to give the looks for the defense throughout the week and still work on getting the game plan down for the team you’re playing on offense. I just tried to prepare myself the best I could every week and be ready and prepare like I was going to be playing in the game, even though I wasn’t.” (On when he found out that he was going to be starting) – “Coach told me, I think he told me last night or this morning.” (On what is going through his head when he was told) – “My head hit the pillow and I just said I had to prepare like I was starting this game. No matter what happens, I have to be ready to play.” Miami Dolphins CB Brent Grimes: (On the last play of the game) “We knew they obviously needed to get in the endzone, our coach made a call, we had to man up and play. I saw the ball up in the air, jumped up in the air and made a play on the ball. I have seen a lot of crazy stuff going on so I made sure I hit it forward.” (On if he was trying to catch the ball) “I was but as soon as he started making contact with me I just threw it forward, I didn’t want anything crazy to happen.” (On how high he was on the last play) “I don’t know. I just jumped as high as I had to. I don’t really know, I jumped as high as I had to (in order) to make a play.” (On how he manages to jump so high) “I guess I just have to thank my mom and dad. I never did anything special to get it, so thanks mom and dad.” (On the win today) “We are all professionals. Stuff is going to happen, whether it be in the media or at home, stuff is going to happen, everything is not going to be perfect at all times. As professionals we need to go out and play a football game, that’s our job and that’s what we came out and did. We came out here focused on football and knew they had a good offense and a great quarterback that makes a lot of plays, so we had to come out and just play, we couldn’t worry about all the other stuff that’s going on, that is out of our control, so we just did our job and came out with the win today.” (On the key to keeping the (Charger’s) offense relatively in check) “Just doing our job, just handling responsibilities, knowing that with a quarterback and an offense like that that has been rolling, they are going to make some plays, that’s what they do. They are a good team and they made some plays but we kept competing and we knew it was going to come down to the end and we held on for the win.” Miami Dolphins T Bryant McKinnie (On playing with new players on the offensive line and players at different positions) – “You just never know when your number is going to be called as a starter and you have to prepare for that. It’s definitely a blow when you learn you’re going to be without your pro bowl center (Mike Pouncey), but at the end of the day you have to have faith in the guy who’s going to come in and fill and hope they are prepared well, and they were.” (On if he’s ever experienced this type of shake up on the line before) – “This is the first time I’ve actually seen where you have three starters who are gone and you have to move people around. I had Nate [Garner] at guard next to me last week and then last night I find out he’s playing center and I have a rookie [Sam Brenner] next to me and we’ve never taken a snap together. But the communication was good and that’s why we were able to be successful.” (On if he’s ever seen a player [OL Sam Brenner] moved from practice squad to starter at that position) – “Not that fast. That was a fast promotion. But he was well prepared, I thought the communication between us was great and he did a good job. I have to commend Nate Garner as well because he was taking snaps at guard all week and then moved to center. They both did a really good job.” Miami Dolphins DT Jared Odrick (On what kind of statement this makes for the team) – “We were put in a position where we could make some plays and given the opportunity and we made them today. That was the difference between last week and this week and we were happy that the D-line could contribute today.” (On if the energy level picked up a little bit near the end) – “The energy level was picked up the whole time, but yes, obviously when you hear the fans getting up and getting loud it gives you a little extra boost.” (On how much the pressure from the front seven has grown over the past few weeks) – “I think you’ve seen it for a little while, it just needs to stay a little more consistent during pressure moments like that and finishing games. Today we did it and we need to build on it and keep doing it.” Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill (On the play of the new-look offensive line) – “They did a great job. I had a lot of confidence in Sam (Brenner) really coming in. I could see in his face before the game. He’s excited to play. He’s excited to have an opportunity. You have to give a lot of credit to (Coach Jim) Turner getting his guys to play in midst of a lot of stuff going on, then losing (Mike) Pouncey to an illness. Just being able to get those guys to go and those guys going in there and taking care of business is a testament to the confidence and ability of that room.” (On the difference Nate Garner made at center) – “Nate stepped in. He’s a versatile guy. He’s a guy who can play any spot on the offensive line. He’s always rolling through in practice getting a snap at every position. For him to really have no days of practice and step in and be on point with all of his (microphone) calls and run check, he did a great job.” (On how the last two weeks have been and getting the win tonight) – “It was awesome to go out there as a team, move the ball a little bit at the end. We ended up having to punt, and the defense played huge right there on the last drive. It’s big for us right now to get some confidence, confidence we already had. We felt like we were that team, and to go out and show we were that team is a good thing.” (On how he’s feeling right now) – “We are excited. We are excited to get on a roll. We feel like we’ve been a good team the whole time. We’ve obviously had our ups and downs, but the belief has always been there, the confidence has always been there, and now it is just a matter of building on this and keeping it rolling.” (On how he feels about the playoff race) – “All we can do is go out and get ready for the next game. We understand it’s going to be a tight race these last six games. It’s going to come down to a tight finish, and we have to win. We want to win all the rest of our games. That’s the mindset we want to have right now. It is going to take us winning all the rest of our games to make the playoffs, and that is what we want to do.” (On the play of Charles Clay, especially on the touchdown) – “It was huge. I saw a void, threw it to him in the opening and never thought it was going to be a 39-yard touchdown. He’s a tough runner, big physical guy who showed his physicalness and toughness getting in the endzone.” (On running out of bounds on the last play) – “It wasn’t a scramble. It was a designed rollout. It’s kind of ironic. The guy we got the matchup against was Richard Marshall who has seen that play in practice a number of times. So he jumped the route, and I didn’t want to throw it away because the clock stops. I was trying to find someone to get the ball to stay in bounds. Looking, looking, looking and before I knew it I was on the sideline. It was throw it away or go out-of-bounds. It didn’t matter at that point. Obviously, we wanted to stay inbounds, but kind of got trapped looking for somebody to get the ball to, and the sideline came up so quick.” (On if it pleased him that offensive coordinator Mike Sherman had confidence to call downfield throws when deep in own territory) – “It’s huge. I feel like we should have the confidence all the time to be able to do that. Coach Sherman called those plays, and our guys stepped up. (Brian) Hartline caught a short one, turned it up the sidelines and got big yardage. I hit (Rishard) Matthews on an inside throw there. We were backed up. If we go three-and-out, if we run the ball three times and punt the ball, there’s going to be a lot of time left on that clock.” (On the downfield throws changing field position late in the game) – “Right, we wanted to go down and score. That was our mindset. If we go down and score, the game is over. Obviously we didn’t make that happen, but we did change the whole field position (when) we were able to punt. Brandon (Fields) boomed a punt down. I think the guy caught it inside the 10-yard line. I think Daniel Thomas made a great tackle on that special teams play. That was big for us.” (On message from coaches to the team last night) – “Just go play. Our confidence hasn’t changed; belief in one another hasn’t changed. We just have to go play the game we know how to. It’s not an easy game, but it’s a simple game. It’s a matter of taking care of the guy next to you, executing your assignment. Tonight we did that.” (On if games are sanctuary from off-the-field distractions) – “I think at this point we are focused on football. There is a lot going on, but we are not focused on that at this point. There wasn’t much talk about it in the building all week. Obviously we got talked to about the interview process we are about to go through, but that’s what it’s going to be. We are going to do our interviews, be participants in the investigation and get ready for the game. At the end of the day (the investigation) is secondary. We have to do it. We have to provide the information we know, but hopefully that is a short 15 minute interview. And then the rest of the week is all football.” (On if he expects to be interviewed by NFL investigators) – “I think everybody is going to be interviewed.” Miami Dolphins RB Daniel Thomas (On what was the difference between this week and last week for rushing) – “I’d say the defesne we faced. They did a lot of movement upfront. They have a great defense, and we didn’t run the ball that much, me and Lamar (Miller) had a hand full of carries. We didn’t’ change anything. We had some new guys in there and they just executed and me and Lamar did our jobs.” (On how the changing o-line has impacted the running backs) – “I mean I don’t think it impacts us too much. We haven’t gotten the opportunity to practice with (Sam) Brenner and Nate (Garner). I feel like they did a good job coming in, stepping up and they practice hard so they are going to carry that over to the game and I think they did that.” Miami Dolphins DE Cam Wake (On the last defensive series) – “It’s funny how things work out. We kind of knew going into this game the way these teams matched up that it was probably going to be a close game. We talked all week about making plays when it counted. This game might have come down to a two-minute drive at the end of the game. So said, that’s what happened. That’s kind of one of those situations where everybody in the huddle just looks in each other’s eyes and says, ‘You know what we need to make a play right now. We need to make a stand. We wouldn’t want it any other way that on our shoulders to close out the game. We made the play to make it happen.” (On how confident the front seven is that it can come up with a big play when needed) – “You know it’s that confidence that we’ve been building since we got together way back in April. A lot of guys make a lot of plays, and it was just one of those games where everybody had to step up all over the place, front seven, offense, special teams. Nobody every talks about it, but (Brandon) Fields, you know his name never comes up but (has) a big punt that puts them down in their territory. We just had to come up with a stop. From top to bottom, team win. Everybody had to step up and make big plays. It happened that way. (On making any changes at halftime to provide more pressure on Philip Rivers in the second half) – “That’s always a big thing coming into halftime. It’s kind of an organized chaos when you get in here. Everybody has got this thing, got that thing, tape, change shoes, all kinds of things going on. But coaches sit down with the time we have and just go over the things we maybe didn’t do so well in the first half and kind of make some adjustments. We just have to go out there in the second half and play our style of ball. That’s what we were kind of destined to do. It was basically 0-0 at halftime where we said whoever wins this half wins this ballgame, and on both sides of the ball we have to go out there and win.” Miami Dolphins WR Mike Wallace (On earning the victory despite distractions) – “This is one of the only things we have to escape everything else; to just go out and play a football game. Any time you can get a win it makes everyone around you feel good, and even the people who are not around you. It was a team effort to go out, get this win and we’re going to enjoy it. But after tomorrow we have to go out and prepare for next week.” (On Ryan Tannehill’s performance) – “He was good. He spread the ball around and everyone got touches, so he did well. I think he did a good job.” (On the team’s performance after the previous loss) – “We were able to put all that aside. No matter what happened, we just have to come into every week focused and ready to play. I think we did a good job of putting that last game behind us and getting ready for this one.” (On being in the playoff race) – “We got some help from some other teams today, but we can’t really worry about that. We just have to stay focused, keep chopping away, and trying to win each football game.” San Diego Chargers Head Coach Mike McCoy (Opening remarks) – “Too many mistakes from the football team today from start to finish to be a team in the NFL. Defensively, we got off to a poor start at tackling … jumping off sides early in the game. Offensively, a turnover to start. And just really, overall, we hurt ourselves way too much. And one time after another we couldn’t get it going there. We talked about cleaning some things up at halftime. The mistakes we talked about at halftime, those first drives, offensively and defensively, where the exact same mistakes we made that we tried to clean up. We dug ourselves in this hole. As a football team we’ll dig ourselves out. We got to find a way. Each man needs to look at themselves and figure a way out, to play a little better, to do their job better and it starts with me as the head coach. So that’s what we’re going to do as a football team. On a positive side, I think Ryan Matthews ran extremely well today … he ran hard. He was fighting in there. You know, 19 carries 127 (yards). Ladarius (Green) had some big catches in there. I think it was four for, what was it, 81 yards. So those are the two positives. You know, we had the turnover early in the game … which was big for us. We got to fight through this. This is nowhere near close to good enough.” (On the team’s penalties, especially the roughing the passer penalty on DE Corey Liuget and QB Philip Rivers crossing the line of scrimmage) – “To be honest with you, I didn’t see it initially. I saw the ball on the ground. But I didn’t see him hit him. So we’ll look at the film. They said it was obvious. And then the other one, Phillip was close. His foot was just in front of that line. So it gave them points and then, obviously, the points we lost on Philip’s (penalty).” (On if WR Keenan Allen suffered a knee injury) – “We’ll give an update on all the injuries tomorrow.” (On if a knee injury was the reason why Keenan Allen wasn’t on the field at the end of the game) – “We kept him out. We kept him out.” (On the team’s inability to score a touchdown, especially when they needed to at the end of the game) – “Well the (Chargers) defense did a nice job, I think, at the end of the game getting us in the situation to go down there and win it. And unfortunately at the end of the game we did a poor job of executing at the end there.” (On Ladarius Green getting more action in today’s game) – “You know, this week we thought with personnel groups with Ladarius and (Antonio) Gates in there were different variations of all the tight ends playing … that there was good opportunity the way they were going to play us, personnel wise, and mismatches that we thought we could take advantage of. And it’s great to see a guy like that make the most out of his opportunity.” (On how well RB Ryan Mathews has been running) – “From day one when we got here I always thought that Ryan was a very physical runner. He’s really bought into the system and the changes … football is football, really. We might call some things differently or have him (run) more attempts at certain things but it’s the whole entire offensive that deserves credit for that. When someone rushes for 127 (yards), the way the line blocked up front. I’m very happy with the way he’s running the football.” (On the team not playing very well today) – “Too many missed tackles on defense, like I mentioned initially. The interception early in the game. The poor execution in the two-minute drill. Those are the big things that stick out. We’ll watch every little play, watch everybody. I think Philip (Rivers) got hit too many times. I don’t know how many times total. The sacks in the critical times in the game towards the end … So we’ve got a lot of things to clean up.” (On not being able to get RB Danny Woodhead into the game on the third-down play in the red zone at the end of the first half) – “We had a busted protection. And that’s what happened. We did a poor job of executing the play.” (On if not having a deep threat hurt the team) – “I think we moved the ball all year long very efficiently. And give the Dolphins a lot of credit. But I think we went up and down the field at certain times of the game and then we’d kill ourselves. Penalties or sacks or something … they have a good front seven. And we knew that coming in there. They had a good pass rush. We’re hurting ourselves too much as a football team on offense. We got to clean a lot of little details up and do it better.” (On going about fixing the team) – “We had a bad day tackling today. I don’t think we had this many missed tackles in a long time. So, we’ll go back and watch the film. And we’ll evaluate that and see what it was and clean it up.” (On the touchdown scored by the Dolphins’ Charles Clay) – “We’ll evaluate the film and see exactly what happened. The first guy has got to tackle him. It’s a want-to game. We got to, you know, beat your man every play.” (On the team’s numerous penalties) – “There’s certain penalties in the game where you accept, you understand certain things. And then there’s dumb penalties. What, did we jump off sides three times in the first half? I mean, come on. Give me a break. And then Keenan (Allen) got the one penalty for chirping. Those are all avoidable. There’s certain plays in the heat of the battle … there’s going to be a holding call. I understand that. I mean, you can’t have them but those ones you can somewhat live with. On an aggression penalty … it’s a physical game. We understand that. And sometimes it is so close … you know, they’re penalties. You got to eliminate the ones you can eliminate just by not jumping off sides and no unsportsmanlike penalties for chirping.” (On if he talked to DE Corey Liuget about his roughing-the-passer penalty) – “As coaches you always do. When things like that happen, you know, you got to stay away from them.” (On the play of Reggie Walker at outside linebacker) – “I’ll evaluate the film tomorrow. It’s hard to watch individual guys. You know, you see certain plays where you say ‘what’s this guy doing?’ There’s certain plays he’s good and bad. We’ll evaluate the film tomorrow and look at it.” (On why he put Reggie Walker at outside linebacker) – “It was a matter of the health of our team and what we thought was the best interest of looking forward of, you know, all of our guys … very similar to what we’ve had to do with the offensive line. We just got to get a different combination of guys in case somebody goes down.” (On how he managed OLB Jarret Johnson with his hamstring issue) – “I think we went out looking at the game saying ‘hey, let’s get him to play so many plays.’ Do this and that. And just make sure that he felt good. And don’t have any setbacks. His hamstring felt fine after the game.” (On the play in the red zone) – “Unfortunately… You know Keenan (Allen) on the one slant, he just stepped on the guy’s foot and slipped. Otherwise, I believed it was a touchdown. Good technique, good route release and his last step took out that guy’s foot and he just slipped - otherwise he (would have) just walked that one in. The other one we had a protection breakdown. So Philip (Rivers) had to get rid of the ball quicker. We’ll look at the film and see exactly what happened there.” (On the play of D.J. Fluker at left tackle) – “I’ll evaluate the film and look at every little detail. But like I said, I wasn’t specifically watching him the whole time but he’s done a heck of a job all year. I’m very pleased with the way he’s stepped up and … you know, the kid’s a competitor. You love the way he approaches every day at work, comes to show up just to get better. That’s all he wants to do every day and he’s going to do whatever we ask him to do. So give him a lot of credit for what he’s doing.” (On if coming into the game he felt that they could run the ball against the Dolphins) – “Yeah, we talked about that earlier. With (Ryan Mathews tallying) 19 carries, 127 (yards) …. Phenomenal job by him. We’re very happy with the way he’s running the football right now. The offensive line … with everyone else involved … tight ends involved … the receivers blocking.” (On if he was aware of the results of the day’s early games) – “I’m not worried about the playoffs. We were trying to beat the Miami Dolphins today. That’s the only thing on our mind. We’re taking them one week at a time. There’s a lot of football left. We’re going to take the same approach this week and, hey, there’s a lot of football left. It’s going to change weekly from now on. We got more important things to work on. We got to get better as a football team, number one.” San Diego Chargers TE Antonio Gates (On the play of TE Ladarius Green) – “Just his contribution this year, he has definitely upgraded from last year. We need him. We need him to continue to upgrade and continue like he has been doing these last couple of weeks. We probably need him to contribute more, because we haven’t been winning the games still. If we can all constantly give a little bit more and give a little more effort, the most important thing is to have productivity in the game. The preparation is there. The effort is there. Just the execution is not, and I think that is what we have to understand and hopefully we can get better coming up.” (On what TE Ladarius Green means to the offense) - “He’s a guy that we try and get in the position that we want and make plays. He is very explosive. You also can see what he does on kick return. We try and put him in positions to make plays and somehow make big plays. ” (On the thin margin of error for this team) – “Based on where we stand now at 4-6, I do. Despite what we believe, we’re a 4-6 team. When I think of every game we lost this season, we made errors and we weren’t good enough to overcome them. So now we understand as a team that we’re not the caliber of a team that can make these kind of mistakes and overcome them. It’s just too tough to overcome them.” (On the lack of offensive flow due to all the penalties) – “It goes back to what kind of team we are. You want to be a certain kind of team, you want to find that identity, but what happens is when you play ten games and you go back and look at those ten games, you somehow create an identity. Whether you like it, whether it’s positive or negative, it doesn’t matter, you’ve created one and that’s who you are. Right now we just can’t do things, we can’t make these mistakes and assume that we will be able to overcome them because we haven’t been able to do that this year.” San Diego Chargers DE Corey Liuget (On the penalty against Tannehill in the second quarter) – “It was a very costly penalty for us as a team and that’s one play I wish I could get back. After I saw the flag I realized what had happened. Once it happened the ball was already gone. When I saw him on the ground I tried to help him up and the flags were coming. After this play you feel even worse after the game not a great feeling at all.” (On the play of the defense today) – “I can not get dumb penalties. Execute within the call as a defensive lineman. I have to do my job and I did it very poorly today. I had some of the biggest and costly penalties of the game. I had a pretty awful game. It was different today.” (On playing back home) – “Being in front of your home crowd and home city you definitely want to be better but today was not the case. I have to get ready for next week and get better that’s part of being a pro.” (On what can you take away from today’s game) – “As a team you definitely have to turn it around, make plays, and not get penalties. We need to get better and actually win. I feel disappointed on my play today but we have some guys in this locker room who won’t quit and we will definitely keep fighting.” San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers (On not being able to get the big play) – “We didn’t capitalize on those opportunities. We got down into the red zone a couple of times and had a chance to score touchdowns but we didn’t. We had some penalties that hurt us and we just didn’t make enough plays. Right now we’re not playing well enough to be able to afford to do that. There are a lot of teams in this league that made some mistakes today, missed throws, turned it over, but they are overcoming those and we’re not good enough right now to do that. We’ve got to make all of those and we’re not making them right now so every little mistake is magnified. That’s what we need to get straightened out.” (On whether he thought that pass to Keenan Allen was a touchdown) – “As I was throwing it I saw him slip. It was one of those that you can recoil but I think had he not slipped or stepped on his foot, he said he stepped on his foot; it’s probably a stand up, walk in touchdown. We’re not making the plays and we’re not getting those kinds of breaks. I’m not saying we’re a few lucky breaks away from winning, but we’re not doing our part. Sometimes those kinds of things go your way and sometimes they don’t.” (On the last drive of the game) – “It was tough. It was tough to go 85 yards in two minutes with a timeout and with the sack we needed to burn it there. We got down there and we had a shot in the end zone. It’s too bad that we didn’t score the drive before because that’s when we were really rolling. Every time we got down there, we just didn’t finish the drive to take the lead there when we had those chances in the third and fourth quarter.” (On the pass to Antonio Gates when he was over the line of scrimmage) – “I’m not going to score if I keep it. It’s going to be third and goal from the three, maybe the two and a half and after I look at it I don’t know if I’m exactly on the five yard line. As you move in the pocket you feel like I’m probably right at the breaking point and then Gates flashes and it’s hard to tell. I think it’s worth it obviously from six inches, or a foot, maybe it was two feet but it was not much more than that. If any part of your body is behind the line it’s good so it was close, I can’t tell how close but it was close.” (On Ladarius Green’s play today) – “It was just some of the way those plays came up. We know what he’s capable of and he’s going to continue to have a role for us in the passing game and in the running game. He was big for us with a couple of big catches.” (On Ryan Mathews running the ball) – “He’s running well. It was a long run that he had, and it was big, and again we didn’t finish that drive. We get down there and go three more plays and kick a field goal. He is running well and the running game was solid. All of those things are good things, and we’re doing some other things that are good, but they’re just not enough. It’s about finding a way to win and right now we’re not doing that.” (On all of the penalties they had today) – “It is a lot. We’re not playing well enough to overcome those things right now. There are teams, and we’ve been on teams here in the past, where we can overcome some of those penalties. Right now we can’t overcome a penalty, we can’t overcome slipping, and I’m not blaming him, but we just can’t overcome some of those little things that you just think you’ll get next series. Right now we’re not playing well enough to where we can just be a play off here or there. We’ve got to play really well all of the time and obviously we’re not doing that.” (On whether having to be perfect puts added pressure on them) - “I don’t know perfect but we know we have to play well. I think that’s the mentality of most teams, and all of the teams that I’ve been on, you never play with a mentality that you can afford some hiccups but we all know that we’ve been able to overcome some hiccups, and right now we’re not overcoming those. There are two ways to look at it. One, we’ve got to find a way to overcome them and the other one is to not have them. I don’t feel that we feel an added pressure to make every play be perfect. We’ve just got to go cut it loose and play, but we’ve got to try to avoid some of those critical errors.” San Diego Chargers LB Manti Te’o (On what he can take away from today’s game) – “We got to get better. Simple and plain.” (On what areas they need to focus on for next week’s game) – “Just everybody, we just got to get better, we got to execute and just finish.” (On what their focus was defensively) – “Execute, play together and that’s all you can really do. We got to get better and we’re going to get better.” San Diego Chargers FS Eric Weddle: (On what the issues were today) – “I am not sure. We need to tackle better; even if you’re a smaller guy, take his legs and then he cannot really run. It was a tough loss but we’ll bounce back; we still have six more opportunities so I’m keeping my head high and will come back tomorrow ready to work.” (On the difference in his attitude after today’s loss compared to the loss against the Washington Redskins) – “This loss still hurts; I’m just covering it up better now because my guys need me. It’s tough; we gave ourselves a chance and fought hard and had a good run in the end of the 3rd and into the 4th, but we just came up short. Even though we lost we still have to keep our heads up.” (On how to avoid the bad penalties in the future) – “The penalties were bad today on both sides of the ball. We have to focus on technique and put our egos aside; we still have six more opportunities to reach our goals.” (On why no big plays were generated) – “We had two fumbles near the end zone as well as three other turnovers and their guys were fighting.” San Diego Chargers RB Danny Woodhead (On the up and down emotions of this back and forth game) – “Well you know more than anything anytime you lose it’s not a good feeling. That’s part of the game. If you lose you’re not happy. If you win, you’re happy.” (On the Chargers successful running game today) – “I think it’s just everyone did their jobs. The line did a great job and receivers blocking too just, you know, all throughout, and that’s a big deal.” (On what happened on the Chargers last drive when they came up short) – “We didn’t make enough plays to get in and it’s tough, but that’s how the game is. Someone wins. Someone loses.” (On where the Chargers go from here) – “Go back to work. Get back in the routine and get ready for the Chiefs. I mean we got a huge game coming up and that’s all you can really do.”
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:14:48 +0000
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