BB: First of all, I want to compliment the players. I thought our guys really played a good football game tonight in all three phases of the game. We made some plays. It's a good team. The Chargers are a good football team. They give you a lot of problems, but I thought our players had a real good week of preparation. At times it was challenging, but they stayed focused and I think they were well prepared for the game. I think they played well, they played hard tonight and you give them all of the credit in the world. They made a lot of good plays out there. I want to thank the fans for their awesome support. I definitely felt that from the time I walked out on the field, they showed up tonight. They were with us and they gave us some energy and we appreciate that. We have great fans and we have a great owner. He's been awesome all week in times of this tough situation. I was glad that this worked out well for everybody tonight. It's god to win. We get back in the division next week and just take one step at a time.
Q: You came out and threw a bunch of short passes at the Chargers. Is that a product of what they bring in the pass rush?
BB: We thought that we could control the tempo of the game a little bit and wanted to try to spread the field on them. Tom [Brady] was sharp as usual and got the ball to a number of different receivers. Ben [Watson] had some nice plays in that first drive. We got the ball down the field. Randy [Moss]. Wes [Welker]. You can just go right down the line. Everybody contributed. It was good to be able to spread the ball around and get on top. San Diego is a hard team to play from behind with their running game and their pass rush and all of that. You'd be better off trying to play them from ahead and fortunately that's where we were basically the whole game.
Q: When you say you want to thank the fans, are you speaking on behalf of yourself or the team?
BB: The team.
Q: Was there a concern about the team's focus level coming into tonight?
BB: No, I just think that the players did a good job this week getting ready for the game. I think it showed out there tonight. I don't think you get ready for the game 20 minutes before the game and say, 'Well it's time to get ready.' It's a whole process. I think they did a good job this week and I think that showed up in their play tonight.
Q: For you personally, was this one of your more difficult weeks as a coach? Would you like to see it finally end?
BB: The Chargers are a tough football team. They're not an easy team to prepare for. They challenged us, like I said, at every point in the game – offensively, defensively, special teams, running game, passing game and all of that. They're a tough team to get ready for. We have a lot of respect for them.
Q: Why does this team have the ability to be able to put distractions behind them?
BB: Like I said, I think the team had a good week of focus and a good week of practice and they played well. Those things usually go hand in hand, not always, but usually.
Q: Does the fan support mean anything to you individually?
BB: Yes, I did notice it. Absolutely. It was awesome. It was awesome. We have great fans and they showed up and supported the team and I felt some personally as well. I appreciate that.
Q: Do you remember the last time you acknowledged fans and waved to them? That seemed a little unusual.
BB: Probably the last time we won a game at home.
Q: With Adalius [Thomas'] fumble and they had the big defensive stand, the cameras panned to the sideline, it looked like you were particularly spirited after that stand.
BB: I thought that was a big play. It was right at the start of the fourth quarter. They had good field position. Had they been able to convert that into points, it would've closed it to a two score game. We knocked them back out of field goal range and had a couple of big negative plays there, got the ball back and then the offense did a great job. It was about a 10-minute drive, whatever it was, and went the whole length of the field and that kind of sealed the game. So those two series, our ability to stop them there when they had the field position, then offensively the drive the length of the field, that was the whole fourth quarter. That was a huge swing in the game, but it was a big stop for us.
Q: I know you like to look at the tape, but it seemed from the naked eye standpoint that Rosevelt Colvin had a special game.
BB: Well, I'll hold onto that one until I look at the tape. He made some plays. I saw a couple out there that I think he could've done a little better on, but he made some plays. Obviously the first play action pass there, getting out underneath that comeback route was a great play, our first defensive play, he did a nice job on that. He read the play well and made a nice catch, something our linebackers aren't always noted for, but he made a great catch and that was a big turnover for us. Unfortunately we weren't able to convert it into anything, but it was still a good play. We had some good pass rush from all across the front. We had some push in the pocket. [Philip] Rivers did a good job of stepping up. I don't know how he got rid of some of those. It seemed like we were hanging all over him, but he was able to stand in there and make some throws. You have to give him credit on that. He did a good job.
Q: It seemed like you guys flipped your outside linebackers more than you normally do. Was that a product of not giving the Chargers an idea of where they wanted to matchup or motion or any of that?
BB: We gave them a couple of different looks on that, but sometimes we flipped and sometimes we didn't and they moved their guys around a lot so it created some different matchups.
Q: Can you talk about Adalius' interception for a touchdown? He made a pretty special play there.
BB: He did. He did. He made a nice play, anticipated the throw, made a good catch and he really showed his speed on that. He had a couple of guys chasing him. I don't know if they made up any ground, but they didn't make up much. That was a pretty good run. I don't know how far it was. 60?
Q: 65.
BB: 65, yeah that was a pretty good run.
Q: That play in addition to Colvin's strip-sack, I think that those were the only two times that they really got inside your 40 in the first half. As a defensive coach, how big is it to see that those guys are making those plays in those situations and coming up big in big situations?
BB: It's great. You come into the halftime 24-0, makes some stops on defense and have some long drives offensively, that's the way you want to try to play every game, but it doesn't always happen that way, but yes it was awesome. The players played great tonight. They did. They played great. Not perfect, but it was a good, solid performance. I'm proud of them.
Q: Considering who your opponent was, was that first half as good of a first half you've had in years?
BB: Well, we played well. I'm not sure where it would rank, but it was good football. We missed some opportunities now. We had the ball on the 30 yard line and can't score. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.
Q: What was the game plan against LaDainian Tomlinson? Obviously you did a very good job containing him.
BB: Again, I think the score had a lot to do with it, it kind of took away some of their ability to run the ball in the latter part of the game with the score being what it was. No one guy can stop him. It has to be good team defense - our secondary and our force perimeter players and outside linebackers and the three down linemen and the inside backers, being in the right fits, being in the right gaps, taking on good offensive linemen and trying to defeat those blocks and then tackle a runner who is a good runner. It's team defense. There's no one guy. There's no one secret to it. Everybody has to play well.
Q: 38 points in each of the first two games, is this what you hoped for when you made all of those signings in the offseason?
BB: Well, based on those two games I'd hope for a few more. Like I said, I think we left some points out there and we left some plays out there. Hopefully, we'll keep working hard and try to convert those. |
