Injury Report: "(CB) Sheldon Brown has a hamstring strain and had an MRI this morning. We'll just see how he does throughout the week. (S) Quintin Demps has an ankle sprain, more components of a high ankle sprain there, and did not play yesterday with that. Again, we'll see how he progresses here in the next week. (T) Jason Peters, likewise, has an ankle sprain. He had an MRI done again this morning and it's a mild ankle sprain so he should be able to get back out there and go.
"(RB) Brian Westbrook had the concussion last night. It was another big hit that caused this. We will take every precautionary measure we possibly can. It's number one about Brian and his health here and so we will look at this very closely starting today and then throughout the week here. (WR) Kevin Curtis is continuing to improve as is (LB) Akeem Jordan with a hyper-extended knee. Everybody else made it out of the game fairly healthy."
Opening Remarks: "There were some things that we did early that affected the outcome later in the game starting with the red zone, three opportunities in the red zone which we have to take advantage of. There are some things that we can do schematically and there are some things that we have to execute better when we're down in there. There were probably more of the execution things here that we have to make sure to take care of as players and coaches.
"Short-yardage situations, we have to do better there. When you're given opportunities again in the red zone, short-yardage situation and you have a number of shots at it then you have to make sure that you score touchdowns. And then, penalties, nine penalties is too many penalties, we have to do a better job with that. The thing late in the game would have been the last drive that they were able to put together for six and a half minutes. I expect more from my defense than that. I have a lot of trust in them. We'll figure that part out and we'll get that taken care of. You have to be able to get off the field in those situations and give the offense an opportunity to score and we didn't do a good enough job.
"I thought some of the positives were the effort of the football team. I thought they played hard and aggressive and when things weren't going well there wasn't a collapse there. The guys fought through it and gave themselves an opportunity at the end of the game to be in it. I really say that from a defensive standpoint. The offense started the game off very slow and the defense kept battling in there and battling and battling all the way through until the offense got on track and then I thought the offensive line and (QB) Donovan (McNabb) and (WR) Jason Avant and a few of the other guys did a nice job of keeping their confidence up and getting some yards and moving the football and then we came and did okay scoring some touchdowns at the end.
"It's hard to give a good football team that much room when they're scoring touchdowns and you're kicking field goals. The last thing which was very impressive to me was the fan support that we had out there. There was a lot of green in the stands. As players and coaches we wish we would have given them a better show than what we did, but we do appreciate their support and them coming out for the game."
On whether Westbrook will play again this season: "I don't know. I think it's too early to tell right now. It's the last thing on my mind. First thing is that he's okay and that we take care of him. Football right now for Brian Westbrook is not the important thing. It's making sure that we get him analyzed, tested and taken care of and then we'll go from there. Not that we didn't do that before. We took every precautionary measure that we could before and it happened again. Obviously we're going to check with experts and make sure that we listen to them like we did before. The number one thing is Brian's health. You can put football aside and make sure that he's taken care of here."
On how much more serious getting a second concussion is: "I've heard a couple different things on that. Obviously it's not a good thing for a second one to happen. I don't know the medical terms of it. I will get that information as we go throughout the week here. I've heard them determine it by if it was a mild hit as compared to a severe hit. This one here he kind of got sandwiched in between Jason Avant coming back and blocking and then (Chargers S Eric) Weddle coming up and making a hit. I'm not sure he could get where he wanted to get, so it was a fairly direct hit there. It wasn't a mild hit I would say."
On which play Westbrook received the concussion on: "It was off a screen."
On whether Westbrook experienced any memory loss: "He was foggy. He stood up and walked off the field, but you could sense that there was something wrong there."
On whether Westbrook has had any symptoms: "We got in here early this morning at 3:30. We brought him back in here, checked him out, and then we sent him home. He's not due back in here until now."
On whether there was any concern about him taking the flight back from San Diego: "Our doctors kept an eye on him, but they thought he'd be okay."
On whether he wishes he had held Westbrook out of Sunday's game: "We left it up to the doctors. There's a chance he could have played the week before and we held him out of that one according to tests and symptoms. He was symptom-free and tests came back normal and so on so I did what the experts said. They felt comfortable with it and we went with it."
On the discussion going on currently between NFL sanctioned doctors and other neurologists on the long-term effects of concussions: "We're aware of that and it's a sensitive issue. I understand that and it should be. You have to look at it and you have to take every precautionary measure you possibly can on it that's out there now and look at the data, the information and listen to the doctors. That's what we're doing."
On whether he would like the league to mandate rules about when players are able to play after suffering a concussion: "I've lived without those rules throughout my NFL career. I think as more information and as it happens in the medical field is put out there and studied, I know the league and the commissioner will do what they feel is the right thing for these types of situations. I know the commissioner has addressed it and is looking at it very closely. In these types of situations you obviously listen to the experts and their evaluations and so on, that's what we do. We take every precautionary measure we can."
On whether they have conducted a baseline concussion test on Westbrook: "They did a test on him. I'm not going to get into all the results of the test, but they did the test on him right when it happened, the normal concussion test, and he tested positive for that. He had a concussion."
On whether this concussion was more severe than the one he had in Washington: "No he wasn't knocked unconscious. He was a little more with it than that one."
On his concerns about the running backs left on the roster: "I'll look at that as we go here. I have to put all the information together with Brian and I think we have some good young guys here that can play. I am not at that point right now. I have to meet with (general manager) Tom (Heckert)after this and clear up all of that."
On why RB LeSean McCoy didn't get more touches Sunday: "The thing you noticed there is we had a few plays where we had no running back in the game and the way it worked out we weren't on the field quite as much as we would've liked to have been the first three or four series there. It looked like Brian was the guy in there the majority of the time, but the number of plays and then not having the running back on the field a few plays was the reason why."
On whether he's concerned about McCoy's blocking:"He did a couple of good things. I would say if there is one part of his game that he needs to continue to work on is the blitz pickup part of it. He has improved there and he did a decent job the other night."
On whether the sack in the fourth quarter was McCoy's fault: "No."
On whether the red zone problems are the result of a poor scheme or poor execution: "I will say it's both execution and scheme. I'm not going to sit here and hang people out to dry. I just want to get it better and I'll do that in-house."
On whether he thinks that being a pass first offense affects the effectiveness of the running game in short-yardage situations: "I don't think that's the problem."
On Peters not playing: "He had some swelling in there and we weren't able to get all of the swelling out of it and so he didn't feel comfortable in the pregame workout with it. He didn't feel that he could go."
On whether Curtis is closer to practicing this week: "No."
On whether the play clock caused them to burn through a timeout in the third quarter: "I can't question the clock, but there wasn't a lot of time on that clock when I called that timeout."
On late drives where the defense isn't able to get off the field: "We needed to make some plays there and there were a couple of key third down situations. One that jumps out was the one that was third and six right around the forty yard line. You have to be able to get off the field in those situations. Whether it's a coach's responsibility or a player's responsibility of executing, you have to be able to execute in those situations. Those are key situations in a big game that you have to take care of and we didn't do that."
On what the team loses if Westbrook is unable to play for the rest of the season: "I think we all know Brian Westbrook is a good football player. We have been without Brian for most of the season here, but I think you're even a better team with Brian in there. If Brian can't go then the young guys, they grow up fast, and they have to do their part."
On why he thinks concussions have become a central theme in sports conversations recently: "I think it's probably the veteran players that are coming back saying things and there's just more data now. They're evaluating it, which I think is a smart thing to do. That's why I think it's out there."
On having RB Eldra Buckley in for one goal line play: "We used him in short-yardage and goal-line all week. That was the one play that came up in that situation that we termed as short-yardage and goal line."
On whether he was concerned that it would be obvious to the Chargers that they were planning on running the ball when he played Buckley in that situation: "If it's one play then they don't know if it's running or passing. They don't know if we're using him in the run or the pass game. They do now."
