BB: After watching the tape this morning, I feel a lot like the way I did last night. The players made a lot of good plays last night and that's why we won. I just give them a lot of credit. We were productive in all three phases of the game – the running game, the passing game, the kicking game, not that it was perfect, far from it, I'm not saying that. There were plenty of things that we need to work on and improve in. I thought the players really stepped up and played with a lot of energy and we got a lot of good plays from a lot of people. It wasn't just one guy or one thing or one side of the ball or anything like that. I give them a lot of credit for the way they prepared and the way they played last night. Again, just to feed back on last night's comments, I thought the fan support was terrific. You could really feel them behind us in this game. I was touched by some of the support that they gave. It was a good feeling. I think that this team has a lot of confidence in our fans and I kind of feel like the fans have confidence in us. That's a good situation. Right now, we'll put this one behind us and get on to Buffalo. We're back in the division. Buffalo presents some unique challenges, things a lot different than what we've seen from the first two opponents. That will be a big challenge for us. Even though the players have a little bit of extra time today, part of my feeling on the San Diego game is it's so different from what the Buffalo game is going to be, we really could use more time to prepare for Buffalo rather than spend an excessive amount of time going over things from the San Diego game, some of which really won't have too much application in Buffalo just because the styles of play are quite a bit different. That's where we are for this week.
Q: Tedy [Bruschi] had some emotional comments after the game yesterday. You talked about the fans support and what it meant to you, what does the players' support mean to you?
BB: It meant a lot. Nobody has more heart on this team than Tedy Bruschi and I mean that figuratively. We have great players on this team, guys that work hard, guys that put everything into the game and that I totally respect. The team was very supportive, the entire organization, starting with Mr. [Robert] Kraft going all the way down to the players and everybody else. Tedy, he's one of our emotional leaders. He's one of our best players. We have players who are well respected, I don't think there's anybody who has any more respect on this team than Tedy does. I think there are a lot of other people right up there with him. I don't think there's anybody that has any more.
Q: Do you have any reaction to the commissioner's request for additional video tapes?
BB: No, I think that's a fair question and I'm sure there are other questions out there as well. I've made my comments on that and, as Mr. Kraft said last night, we'll handle it as an internal matter, so I'll just leave it at that.
Q: Why do you feel like you don't have any obligation to offer some kind of explanation?
BB: Well, it's been done. We're moving on. I think what we have to do is move on.
Q: It hasn't been done. You haven't actually said anything about it.
BB: We're moving on. Right now we're moving on to Buffalo. That's what is important to this football team, getting ready for the Buffalo Bills. They're a division team and it's a big game coming up. So we'll put the San Diego game behind us and move forward.
Q: So you're not going to say anything at all?
BB: What I'm going to do is I'm going to work as hard as I can to get our team ready to play Buffalo. That comes with a couple of days of preparation here on Monday and Tuesday. When the players come in on Wednesday, it will be putting it all together out there on the field and try to make sure that we can competitively be at our best on Sunday. That's what I'm going to put my time and energy into and that's what I expect the other coaches and players to do as well.
Q: Do you plan on complying with the commissioner's request?
BB: Of course.
Q: Are there more videos?
BB: I think that right now we need to spend our time watching a lot of video on Buffalo and we'll do that. We'll get their game in from Pittsburgh. We saw the opener against Denver. I think they do a lot of things well. We have a lot to get ready for and we'll spend a lot of time watching them and we need to, including our games last year.
Q: Tedy took it as a personal what some other teams from the past were challenging the team's past accomplishments. Do you feel for your players in that regard?
BB: I think whatever Tedy said he's can stand on and he's perfectly capable of speaking for himself. I have respect for our team and our players and the work they do. I respect each one of our opponents. We have a challenge every week no matter who we play or where we play them. It's always tough in this league. I feel that way about all of the teams we've played. I feel that way about all of the teams that are on our schedule that we're going to play in the future, starting with Buffalo this week. I don't think that's ever going to change. Every team is different. Every challenge is different. We just do our best to meet them.
Q: What did it mean to you when Mr. Kraft presented you with the game ball?
BB: I appreciate it. It was a nice gesture. The most important thing is for us right now to put all of that behind us, as good of a win as San Diego was, it's time to move on to Buffalo. As good of a win as the Jets was, a division game down there, it was time to move on. So right now, we're moving on.
Q: Do you think that the controversy last week gave the players some kind of incentive and got them more juiced up and maybe play a little bit harder?
BB: I think San Diego is a real good football team. I think we all know that. We know they're a tough team. They do a lot of things well. We had a lot to get ready for, so that's what we worked on. I think you'd have to ask the players. If you have a question to them, you should direct it to them.
Q: Given how well San Diego played and you also mentioned how well your players prepared last week, were you surprised at putting up 38 points against them?
BB: There were some things that went our way in the game last night and that was good. We got off to a good start. We had a good first drive, had a couple of turnovers, was able to take advantage of one of those for some points, played well on defense in the first half, especially on third down and got off the field. If we played them again, I don't know that the score would be the same. I doubt that it would. It was good that it happened the way that it did. I think it was in our favor to be able to play that team from ahead. They lost some opportunities to run the ball at the end of the game because of the score. That hurt their pass protection and gave us an opportunity to be a little bit more balanced offensively and not play them from behind like we did last year. We were a little more in control of the game. I think that's the way this particular game went. Next time we play them, whenever that is, or another time we've played them in the past, the game goes differently. Sometimes that changes the course a little bit. Each game is its own entity.
Q: What did you notice that San Diego did differently on either side of the ball from what they did in January?
BB: As we talked about last week, Norv [Turner's] system is a little bit different than what Cam [Cameron's] system was. So some of the plays are different, although there is a lot of carryover and continuity, I think that Norv has some of his own unique things and they present some problems. They hit us down the field on several passes. Defensively what Ted [Cottrell] did was a little bit different than what Wade [Phillips] did. Some of the pressure packages that they used in kicking the front over and stuff like that, was more than what we had seen in last year's game.
Q: Did they use [Shawne] Merriman any differently than you expected?
BB: He plays the positions that he normally plays. He's an end in their dime package. He's an outside linebacker in their 3-4 package and they have a variety of things they do with him from those packages. They hit a couple of wrinkles on us. They hit us on that loop stunt on the play action pass where they sacked us there in the second quarter. Look, they have good players. They have good coaches. They have some good plays. They did some things that gave us some problems. There's no doubt about it. We gave them a few problems. That's the NFL. [Antonio] Gates gave us some problems. Merriman gave us problems. [Randy] Moss gave them some problems. It's the NFL. There's definitely problems out there, don't get me wrong.
Q: Getting back to the tapes for a second. Is there any concern on your part?
BB: I think we're at the same point on that. Any questions on the game, on us…
Q: Bill, going back to Randy for a second. His second touchdown came out of a one wide receiver set. Is that something that you can do more because of him, having a guy like Randy out there?
BB: I don't know. You'd have to talk to another team that defends that kind of formation. I think that our wideouts have different skill sets. Wes [Welker] is a productive player for us. Donté [Stallworth]. Randy. [Jabar Gaffney]. Kelley [Washington]. They're all productive players. They all have different skill sets, so how you defend one versus defending another, that's the decision that another team has to make. I think that what we tried to do last night, what we tried to do in the first game of the year, is to use all of our skill players. Sometimes we have multiple receivers out there, sometimes we have multiple tight ends. Sometimes we have a couple of backs in the backfield. Sometimes there's one back. Sometimes there's no backs and we've tried to keep the defense off balance by using a variety of personnel, a variety of formations and plays that compliment those players and those formations that fit into the situations that come up. I think you're going to see a little bit of some of those. You're also going to see some other things. Some matchups, we feel like we have a favorable one. Sometimes they're in a defense that we don't feel like we have that much of an advantage. Again, that's the NFL. They have good players and good coaches over there and they do a good job against us, you just have to try to find somewhere where you can chip out a few yards.
Q: Was that max protection on that play?
BB: No, it was seven-man protection. It just looked like Drayton [Florence] thought it was one thing and it was something else, or maybe there was supposed to be help over the top. We'll never know. They may know, but I don't think we know.
Q: How good was Bam Childress on the scout team as LaDainian [Tomlinson]?
BB: I think one of the things that we had last week was an exceptional look from the players who were on the scout team. Bam did a real good job. We had guys that were Gates and [Marlon] McCree and guys like that. We had Merriman and Phillips. We had a lot of different players who…and the Chargers have a lot of great players, we had a lot of guys who had to simulate or imitate them as you'd be. I thought we got a real good look out of a lot of those guys and that's something that I mentioned to the team earlier in the week and I'll mention it to them when they come back on Wednesday about how important that was, how much that helped us prepare for the game and then how important it will be this week going forward into Buffalo. It was a good team effort all the way around in terms of the preparation, each side of the ball getting the other side ready and also going out there and practicing it and playing the game. It was a good week.
Q: You mentioned last night that it was a team defensive effort to contain Tomlinson. Did you try to force him out wide?
BB: No, I wouldn't say we were really trying to force him anywhere. You have to defend the outside plays. You have to defend the off-tackle plays and you have to defend the inside plays and then you have to defend the cutback plays and the misdirection ones. One of the things San Diego did last night was they ran some misdirection plays with [Lorenzo] Neal where they would start him out on one side of the formation and either run away from him or cross him over to the other side of the formation to be the lead blocker in addition to their normal put him in and then lead with him. Lorenzo is a key point on the running game. He's very often at the point of attack, but that's the type of thing that Norv does, is he gives you different looks but kind of runs the same plays to make it harder to key in on or harder to anticipate where they're going to go. Again, defensively, you don't want everybody in one spot. Like even if you knew the play was going in a four hole, you put two guys in the four hole, well Tomlinson is going to read it out and go into the six hole or the five hole. That's not really the answer. The answer is to play good team defense across the board, everybody taking care of their gap responsibility, controlling their area and making sure he doesn't get outside and pushing him to where our help is. That's what team run defense is – and tackling. Defense is nothing if you can't tackle the guy with the ball. That's what defensive football is, is getting the guy with the ball on the ground. We had a number of situations where there was some space and we had to make open field tackle or had to make tackles that weren't really clean shots and the guys did a pretty good job of wrapping them up and getting them down and it's not easy.
Q: Do you recall a player as large as Adalius Thomas out-sprinting a pair of wide receivers and running 65 yards like he did last night?
BB: The last play that really comes to mind on that, it's not quite the same image that you're talking about thought, no. I thought it was an impressive run. I thought he showed a lot of speed there and didn't look like he was losing a lot of ground. It reminded me of the play against Detroit when I was with the Giants when Lawrence Taylor intercepted a pass on the goal line. It was a goal line pass and he went down the sideline. Now they were chasing him for a while, but they didn't chase him all the way because everyone was on the goal line, it was kind of a packed-in formation, but Lawrence kept looking over his shoulder and he saw the shadows of himself and he thought it was another player chasing him. So even though he was out in front of the whole team by probably 40 or 50 yards on the second half of the run, he was running like there was a guy that was about to dive and trip him up by the ankles. He was a big guy that was pulling away from a lot of people on that run too. That play was a long touchdown return by a linebacker. You don't see a lot of those, but it was nice to see it last night.
