Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis
On whether at any point during the game, he considered stopping calling the blitzes and dropping back into coverage:
COACH DAVIS: Yeah, if you watched, there were many times that we rushed only three players. We were falling off and bluffing blitzes. Again, I have to take my hat off to the Chargers and their game plan. When we did drop off, [QB Philip Rivers] held on the ball and got some of those deeper routes in. The bigger plays, which we really try to avoid, came when we had three-man rushes. It was trying to mix it up and our guys played hard, but they out executed us.
On whether the game plan today was to rotate the safeties:
COACH DAVIS: Through the course of the game, we had multiple injuries and nicks back there. We were changing it up a bit because guys kept coming out. [defensive back coach John Lovett] was just putting out fires left and right. There was no plan for that.
On whether he is concerned about the safety position going forward:
COACH DAVIS: The whole defense needs work. We said it after last week when we were happy with our performance. This week, we came up short. There is still a lot of work to be done. We said it from day one, that we were going to see who we were. Week one was a picture and this painted another picture for us. We have to work our tails of and get these things fixed. We have to get off the field and get our offense the ball.
On whether the Chargers offense is similar to what they expect the Chiefs to run next week:
COACH DAVIS: It's similar, yes. They have a quick passing game, they get four or five receivers out there. Yes, it's a similar offense.
On whether he felt the defense got worn down by the end of the game:
COACH DAVIS: That is our fault. We have to get ourselves off the field. That is the thing about defensive football, you get yourself off the field and then you get rest. We were not making the plays in the second half on third down. In the first half, we weren't making plays on first down. We have to collectively fix that and play better. It has to get better.
On whether he tried anything different to stop them as the game went on:
COACH DAVIS: Well, they did a great job of protecting. I will give them all the credit that is due. They did a nice job of protecting inside out. [QB] Philip Rivers stepped in the middle of the pocket, which was an area that we wanted to own. We didn't get there often enough and they made plays. They moved the sticks. We threw everything at him and then he out executed us.
CB Cary Williams
On what the Chargers offense did today that caused the defense so many problems:
WILLIAMS: You have to tip your hats off to those guys. Philip Rivers is a tremendous quarterback who has proved that year in and year out. That was not going to be an easy win. It seemed like they were on to every play and every check that we made. They understood what was going on. Sometimes when you play a great quarterback, which happens. We were not able to get off the field when we needed to. We had some big turnovers in the redzone, but we had to do a better job of coming up big. Unfortunately they made the big plays.
On whether he thinks the officials target him in any way:
WILLIAMS: That's a part of the game. Sometimes you get calls and sometimes you don't. The last penalty was a blatant hold. I knew I held him. But other than that, it's football. You can't cry or gripe about the refs making calls. I just have to do my job. I am going to play the way I play and I am not going to let the refs determine how physical I play.
On whether the defense's performance was more disappointing, considering how great QB Michael Vick played:
WILLIAMS: It stings. Every time you lose it stings, because we are competitors. If it doesn't sting, you don't belong at this level. A lot of guys are hurting and feel as if we let the offense down. Like I said, you have to tip your hats off to the Chargers for being ready on a short week and coming out here. They made plays when they needed it. [Chargers WR] Eddie Royal came up big on third down situations. They were great and sometimes you run into buzz saws like that. They did what they were supposed to do today and unfortunately we didn't. So we are going to come out and practice hard this week and look forward to the Chiefs.
On whether the defense was not tough enough today:
WILLIAMS: I don't think it was a question of us not being tough. We play physical every down. That's not the question. They were just able to make the plays and we were not able to capitalize.
OLB Trent Cole
On whether not being able to get off the field on third down was the biggest disappointment today:
COLE: Yeah, that is the key for the defense. That was our main goal and we didn't do it. We will fix it. We will get back to the drawing board and get ready for the Thursday game. We will fix the things that need fixing and go from there.
On whether the defensive performance is more disappointing because QB Michael Vick had a career day:
COLE: As a defense, we can't worry about what the offense is doing. When it's our time to get on the field, it's our time to get out there and get off as soon as possible. As a defensive player, that's the only thing I can speak about. We have to execute and not worry about what the offense is doing. We know that when we get out there, we have to get off the field.
On his thoughts about the defense giving up over 500 yards of total offense:
COLE: It hurts. We have to go back, fine tune things and get them fixed. We have a good team. It's not like we have a bad team. Things just didn't work out the way we wanted them to. We played a good team today and we have to now move forward to the next team.
On getting ready to play the Chiefs in only four days:
COLE: We will get right back in there tomorrow.
On whether it's hard for him to get a feel for the game when he's coming in and going out often:
COLE: I wouldn't say it's tough. The way we look at it, we have to take advantage of every rep. It may be a few reps and it may be a lot of reps, but we have to take advantage.
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S Patrick Chung
On moving into the slot at one point when the Chargers had three safeties:
CHUNG: When Coach puts you at a position, you have to be ready to go in there and play. One of our guys went down, so we happened to have to go nickel. You have to be able to go inside and cover your guys. Whatever you can do and the more you can do, the better it is.
On knowing the defensive unit gave up more than 500 yards:
CHUNG: That's a lot of yards. We just have to watch film to see where we can get better at and see where we messed up at. We played hard, I really feel like we played our hearts out. Hats off to them for a good game—it came down to the wire, but now we just have to move on to the next game.
LB DeMeco Ryans
On how it seemed as if San Diego had players that were too tough to go one-on-one with:
RYANS: It doesn't matter who a guy is, you trust your technique and do your technique—you should just be able to cover them.
On what made San Diego WR Eddie Royal so tough to deal with:
RYANS: He's definitely a shifty guy; a smaller shifty guy who can make some plays, make guys miss. Again, I think we missed a couple tackles on him. We just can't have that stuff. I feel like as a defense, we let that game slip away.
On if the final score wasn't as close as the game actually went:
RYANS: We were very fortunate to get those turnovers. Guys came up with some big plays; they were crucial times in the game—Trent [Cole] causing one and [Brandon] Boykin causing one was huge for us, because they were going in and possibly score on a kicked field goal, so that kind of turned around and gave our offense a little more momentum.
On what's most important between now and Thursday night:
RYANS: Making sure we're healthy and that everyone has recovered and is ready to go on Thursday night. We mentally have to lock in and study as much film as we can of these guys and see how we're going to attack them.
LB Connor Barwin
On if the defense takes it personal to not win a game like this:
BARWIN: Yeah, I do, we gave up a lot of points, so that's hard to swallow, but you have to go back and look at it. Thankfully we play Thursday, so we can get the taste out of our mouths soon.
On if he thought the defensive unit was wearing down late in the game due to being on the field so much:
BARWIN: I don't think so. I think we were fine. I think I was going as hard as I was at the end, because I wasn't in the beginning. I wouldn't say that had much of an effect."
On San Diego's protection of QB Philip Rivers:
BARWIN: They do a pretty good job of protecting Rivers. They keep a nice, tight pocket—he steps up. They didn't give up too much pressure last week against Houston and obviously we needed to get more. He was getting the ball out quick; we needed to get some hands on balls and we didn't, so we'll look and see what happened."
