TITANS HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
(on how much the team needed today's win)
I think it was great win for us. We hung in there. It just shows you how this team has been believing in each other no matter what happens throughout the game. Hang in there, hang in there, we've done that all three weeks. This week we were able to finish with a great drive for a touchdown to win in the final two minutes. Again, we didn't turn the ball over on offense which means again you are always going to be in football game. That's one thing that has really been a huge plus for us. We needed a win like this. We talked about it last week when we didn't get a win like this. It's nice to get one the next week. We got exactly what we needed. We played a good football team that we have had trouble beating for a long time. And we came in here and had things that didn't go our way. We didn't necessarily play smart at times, we had too many penalties. We had big plays we left on the field but our defense kept us in the game. The defense kept the score down within striking distance at the end. Then we had the four minute or the two minute and we go 94 yards with no timeouts and that is something special. That is something hopefully a team like us will build off of.
(on Jake Locker's poise in crucial situations)
I thought he had a great game. I thought right from the beginning he played well. He was making good throws. He was on target. He was running when he was supposed to. He converted third downs with his legs and his arm. He felt really good about what was going on. He led us on a two-minute drive before the half for points. He led us on a two-minute drive at the end of the game to win it. So, that was a huge game for him and for this football team. Again, you see hard work and hanging together believing it pays off at the end.
(on if there was any hesitation on going to rookie Justin Hunter at the end)
We knew going into the game we were suiting up six receivers so we wanted them to play. They were going to be standing on the sidelines and we were going to use more wide receivers than we had been in the last few weeks because we thought we could do some (other) things in the passing game. We had some early in the game they probably could had caught one in the end zone. Kenny (Britt) had one. We passed around. We had some throws. The one I challenged that Nate (Washington) didn't get. We had a chance at a lot of big plays that we didn't get. But not bad for (Justin Hunter's) first catch to be a game winner. So that just shows you what his ability is, why we are so excited about him. He just adds another element to our offense and so a great catch by him. Something, obviously he can build on.
(on explanation received on Nate Washington challenge play)
They really don't give you one other than in their opinion he didn't possess the ball long enough from their view on that one. So, those calls are hard. We felt we had a shot at it from where we saw it. That was a big play at the time. Even the other one again, I thought about not doing it, but I thought again, a huge play, big gainer. Luckily, we didn't need the timeouts at the end. We got the drive done. That's the hard part of doing it, you don't want to lose timeouts.
(on the Titans' early penalties)
It's frustrating because when you see them on tape I think a lot of them are touch fouls. I think a lot of them seem unnecessary. I think early the defense got frustrated when offensive linemen were down in the pile getting the last push in. We got caught a couple of times in that. That's something we can't have. There's no excuse for something to get caught swinging or pushing after a play. There's no place at all for that. We had one of those. A lot of the other ones were you know, we saw this, we saw that with hands (where) it looked like he pushed him. Like I said, a lot touch fouls that we have to clean up. I think we told each other at halftime, don't let that frustrate us, don't let that cost us this game, don't let us get caught up in the officials going forward. I thought we did a good job in the second half. I think we had one, maybe two in the second half. But, you can't have those things and luckily it hurt us, but didn't cost us the game.
(on the officials allowing contact to happen on the last touchdown play)
I think they were both making a play on the ball. Again, we got so many calls on us and so many non-calls on us. You never know what they're going to do. The one Kenny (Britt) had, I thought he was being tackled as he was trying to catch the ball, and then they call one on us that looks like (Bernard) Pollard is making a great play on the ball. Those are things that are judgment calls. I don't think there are a lot of obvious calls, where you'd say, 'Oh yeah, that's PI (pass interference).' I think we got caught in a lot of the gray area where we just got a lot of calls piled on us in that first half that maybe a different team it would have taken us out of our game. It hurt us in field position, it hurt us in situations. It hurt drives on offense. I thought the second half we put it behind us and rose up and played well.
(on practicing the lateral play)
The offense practices the same kind of play. We just practiced it yesterday, that's something we work on. When you can't throw the Hail Mary, or you're too far for the Hail Mary, so you're going to do a lateral-type play like they did, which we assumed they would do because it was a little far to reach the end zone. He knew he wouldn't have time to make that throw, so you anticipate that type of play. We work on it every Saturday. It's the old school-yard play and hope that they don't get lucky.
(on containing Danny Woodhead, Antonio Gates and Eddie Royal)
We got them on the ground, we didn't miss a lot of tackles. We knew they were going to make some plays. I thought overall we tackled pretty decent in most situations. We got off the field, a lot of times it was fourth-and-two, fourth-and-one, fourth-and-three. We made a lot of tackles at the sticks. That was probably the difference. Where they really make their living is making those guys miss and converting first downs. I thought we did a great job with that throughout the day. Like I said, even though we weren't finishing drives on offense, the offense looked really good, but didn't have any points. I thought we did a lot of things—we were running the ball well, we passed the ball well, and we look up at the scoreboard, we've got 10 points. That was the frustrating part. The good thing was they only had 13 or they had 17, or whatever it was. That's how we've been the last three weeks. We've been hanging together, we've been believing in each other. This is a huge win for us early in the season.
(on if Kenny Britt's frustrations are getting to his head)
I'm sure it does. You get frustrated with those type of things. You think people are looking at everything you do. Even on the penalty, that's one of those things where Kendall (Wright) is changing direction about 10 times on the same play, and (Kenny Britt) is trying to block a guy and the guy is spinning around. They're saying, 'Well, his hands ended up on his back.' I'm thinking, 'Come on.' Those calls are understanding what was going on in the situation until you watch them on tape. It's almost like you're one of those guys that they just keep calling it on you. It can't happen, we all have to be smart with our hands. It's frustrating as a player. I know if I'm an offensive lineman, and you get a game where they keep calling holding calls on me, it just makes you a little more passive and kind of takes you out of the game a little bit. That's what I was trying to encourage the players not to let happen at halftime. We can't become soft or timid because they're throwing flags on us. We have to play smarter. We can't let that take us out of our game. I don't think it did. I felt we played well in the second half.
(on rotating receivers the last drive)
We were moving guys because they were tired. I know Kendall (Wright) was in, Kendall was out. You want your best guys out there, but again, you want them to have some steam also, some juice left in them. I'm not sure how the rotation ended up at the end. We needed fresh guys out there, that was the goal, no matter who it was. We needed some guys that were running good and felt good. Like I said, we were rotating as quick as we could, and we didn't have a whole lot of time. (Justin Hunter) makes a great play. That's the kind of play we think he can make, Kenny (Britt) can make. We have guys that can make those kind of plays, we feel. We have to keep getting those.
(on if he feels that Justin Hunter is ready to take a larger role on the team)
We think he is. I think it's just he needs to play, like today, catching the ball. He had another ball he could have caught. We have confidence in him and I think the quarterbacks do. I think he's showing it every week. I think he's seeing what it takes to prepare in the league. The more he plays, he's a guy we think is going to get better and better. He's a young kind that's learning the game. I think Nate (Washington) is doing a good job teaching him and showing him the ways, along with (wide receivers coach) Shawn Jefferson. He's in a great situation where he's not asked immediately to have to be the man, but he's going to be a big part of what happens this year.
(on injuries)
We had some nicks. Everyone came in and finished, the only one that didn't was (Patrick) Bailey. I think he got a slight hamstring somewhere in the second quarter, maybe. Other than that, we had guys come and go, but nobody was out of the game.
(on if Jake Locker got a little shaken up on one drive)
I just think it was the way he got hit. I think he got the wind knocked out of him on a play, so that's why we handed the ball off a couple of times to let him catch his breath. Real proud of him, just real proud of how he's handled everything he's had to handle and how well he played today. That's what you want. We talked about all the 'what-ifs' last week that we could have done. He comes out this week and plays the best game of the year. It was great to watch him play.
(on if he sees this game as a defining moment in Jake Locker's career)
I hope it leads to a lot of great things, obviously. I think it just gives our whole team confidence when you can take the ball 94 yards with no timeouts and 1:50, and the defense getting a stop at four minutes and getting us the ball back. That's the stuff at times last year we didn't get done. Last week, we didn't get it done that way. We talk about the phases, the situations. I thought it was fun to watch these guys battle through it. Here we go again, another tight game at home, first time at home and we come away with the type of win we needed.
**TITANS QB JAKE LOCKER
(on the Titans' mindset going into their last offensive drive)**
I think there was a calm feeling; I don't think there was panic. We had the penalty that put us back on the six-yard line. I think there was just the feeling that we had enough time to go down and make something happen, and that's what we believed in.
(on if there was a specific play on the last drive that he felt got the momentum going)
You know what, it's funny, but I think the play that Delanie (Walker) makes on the ball that the safety has and he goes and breaks it up—that's a huge play. If he quits on that play, feels sorry for himself because he dropped it, the game is over. So, him finding a way to get the ball out was important.
(on how big a win like this can be for the Titans)
I think it's huge for us. Especially because it is our home opener in front of our crowd against a good football team, and a team that has been playing really well—to do it in the fashion that we did wasn't pretty, but when we needed to we stepped up and made plays.
(on how they were able to overcome stalled drives and mistakes)
I think today when we go back and look at the film we had some penalties—we'd get across the 50 and get a penalty that would put us in long down and distance. We'd either have to punt or have a long field goal attempt. Some drives that I think we should have finished, but we didn't. That's how games go sometimes and I'm proud of the guys for finding a way to make it happen at the end.
(on the game-winning touchdown to Justin Hunter and how the play was designed and played out)
Everybody was going vertical and he was the first read to me when I saw him out there and they single covered him. We drafted him because he's a long, fast receiver that can jump and plays above the rim. I think he's a mismatch against any corner in the league when you throw that jump ball and it's one-on-one.
(on Justin Hunter's dropped touchdown reception earlier in the game and if he had talked to him about the drop)
I told him after the catch that I thought he did a great job of learning from that play earlier in the game—not allowing the defender to get his arm on his hands and going up and catching the ball at the highest point. That's his greatest attribute as a receiver, I think, is he's can catch footballs that other guys can't get to, especially defenders, and he did a great job of not allowing that guy to make a play on the ball.
(on what he saw after he released the ball)
Honestly, once I threw it and saw them both jump to go up for it he was so much higher than the guy guarding him—I started celebrating.**
(on his feelings after Hunter completed the touchdown reception)**
Just excitement—thankful for the opportunities that we've been given and the guys I have the opportunity to take the field with.
(on what he's seen from Nate Washington)
I think I've told you guys since OTA's and into camp that he's really separated himself with his work ethic as a leader, and I know I can count on him to be in the right spot and make a play for me. He did that a lot tonight. We did have a lot of big third downs that we converted being able to get the ball to him. I have a lot of confidence in him that any route called he can find a way to win, so he did a good job winning his one-on-one matchups today and catching the football.
(on what having all the reps in the offseason has helped him with)
I've said that it instills confidence when you're throwing to different receivers because you have a better idea of how guys run routes differently. Maybe what their attributes are and how they're going to differentiate—a guy like Kendall Wright I know having really worked with him that he may not always be exactly where he's supposed to be, but he's going to be open so if I can find him, we can make some plays. That's one of his biggest attributes. Just being able to understand things like that and be able to work with them allows me to get them the ball more.
(on if his long run early in the game got him fired up)
Excited—we kind of had a few drives stall out on us, and to be able to flip the field and get the crowd back into it and get some excitement on offense I was excited about that.
(on if the game plan called for him to run the ball more today)
No, actually the touchdown was the only called run we had in the game plan. The other ones were just me seeing a lane and took it or not liking what I saw down field and had an opportunity to get out of the pocket and make some plays with my legs.
TITANS RB CHRIS JOHNSON
(on the importance of the Titans' final offensive drive)
It felt good. That's something we work on every week in practice and that just shows that it pays off. A lot of the time when running that drill in practice, we don't want to do it. It makes you really tired. This just shows that it shows up in some games and it's actually a situation.
(on Jake Locker's demeanor in the huddle before the final offensive drive and on the team's confidence in Locker)
Of course I had confidence in him. He's getting better and better every week. He was in the huddle telling us to keep fishing, that it was going to happen, and it did.
(on the Titans' defense setting up the two-minute drill in the fourth quarter)
That was really big because we didn't have any timeouts. It was big that we got the ball back and they gave us enough time to drive it down the field.
(on feeling as though he is on the verge of a big personal breakout)
I feel close. I'm just working, trying to get better and better every week. Every situation I go out there looking for those big runs and they're going to come.
(on the importance of this win for the team)
It's really big. We haven't beat San Diego in so long. All offseason we've been preaching about a fast start and we're so close. We're supposed to be 3-0 right now. It would have been really bad if we were 1-2 right now. Just trying to get a fast start is good for this team.
(on building confidence through hard-fought victories )
We just want to win games and not make it as close. Every situation we are making sure at the end of the game we have a chance to win. To be able to come in here and compete with all of the other top teams feels good.
TITANS WR JUSTIN HUNTER
(on being in the huddle for the final offensive drive)
That the Titans have confidence in me and count on me, I have to be accountable for my actions to go out and do what I have to do.
(on game-winning catch being biggest of his young career)
(laugh) Yes it was.
(on the mentality in Titans' huddle for the game-winning drive)
You have to go down and score. The game is here for the taking, so we had to put some points on the board.
(on did he ever think the touchdown pass was coming his way)
Coach told me on the sideline, 'Jus,' I'm going to rotate you in, in these last two minutes, so make sure and be ready.'
(on seeing the game-winning touchdown ball in the air)
I was like, I have to go deep, I have to run as fast as I can and make sure the DB is nowhere around me when I get the ball, and just jump for it. I had to hold on tight like it was a baby.
(on when he sees one-on-one coverage, what does he do?)
I lick my chops and hope the ball is coming my way.
TITANS G CHANCE WARMACK
(on getting the win in the Titans' home opener)
It's having fun with the game. I think we should have fun, and you're playing a game. At the same time, good things happened for us. It was a good win. I just found out that the Titans haven't beaten the Chargers in a long time, so it was a good win to have. I definitely gained a lot of experience through this win and this game and feel like I'm growing as a player. And we are developing as a team, overall. Everyone is getting better.
TITANS WR NATE WASHINGTON
(on the Titans' victory)
I don't know about it being a big win, as opposed to being a much-needed win. At home, in our house, we take pride in what we do so I'm glad that everyone pulled together. Nobody ever gave up on this game. We knew San Diego was going to be a tough team to beat because they have a great core of guys. We are happy that we put things together to get that win. I don't think it was necessarily about so much as beating the Chargers, as it was getting another win. This is the right direction we want to go in.
(on the Titans' receivers having success due to the one-on-one match-ups)
I'm not going to say it was just the match-ups. I'm going to give it to the hard work throughout the week. I think throughout the week our practices have been a lot more intense and a lot harder. We've been putting a lot more on our shoulders throughout the week to come in every single day from the weight room to the last play at practice. So we showed that we'll do what we have to, to get wins.
(on what was discussed in the Titans' huddle prior to the game-winning drive)
We have to make plays. Everybody. It's on everyone. Not one person can do it by themselves. This game is about being together. And we had to make sure on that drive, we did everything together. From the offensive line, to the running backs, to the quarterback and the tight ends, and us, the receivers. So we just made sure we did it together and everyone made their plays.
(on if the big catches make up for several drops)
Of all the catches I made today, I guarantee you I won't be sleeping because of that drop, because I feel like I left one on the field. I don't want to leave anything out there. I have to make sure I secure that ball a little quicker than what I did.
TITANS LB AKEEM AYERS
(on getting the sack on Philip Rivers)
I was kind of setting them up the entire game with the speed off the edge, and speed, speed, speed. I just really let my quickness do the rest after that. I came off the edge, and set him up with the speed, and got him on his heels and faked him, and went underneath. And then quarterback stepped right up in that pocket, and he had been stepping up in the pocket the entire game. So when you're rushing the quarterback, it turns out to be a one-on-one with you and that offensive tackle. And it becomes mind games pretty much the whole game and you have to set certain stuff up. You're not going to get a sack every play, but it comes setting it up, and building the plays up to get it, when you really need it. **
CHARGERS HEAD COACH MIKE McCOY
(opening statement)**
In a football game like this too many mistakes at critical times during the game. This is a very good football team. We knew coming in here the style of football they play. It's a tough place to play and a very physical football team. Give them credit. But when it comes down to the end of the game we didn't make a play and they made one more play than we did. Give them the credit where it's deserved. We were put in this situation and we didn't finish the game so we have got to improve there. We let the quarterback make plays with his feet today and that was a big key coming into the game, don't let (Jake) Locker get going with his feet. Unfortunately, we didn't do that. Little mistakes killed us in this game. A number of them. We will analyze the film and look at it and correct it as soon as we can.
(on not running as much in the 4th quarter)
We were doing what we thought was best to win the football game and that's what we are going to do. We are not going to second guess ourselves. We are going to learn from it, move on, and keep going. We got a first down in there like we wanted to do and did certain things. That was the plan we had and we went in with it.
(on not throwing more)
I am not going to second guess play calling or anything like that at all. We did a good job. We had a good plan. We have to do a better job as a whole. Whatever it is, we have got to do a better job and move on with it. We have got to eliminate the penalties, the dumb penalty in there, and one in the first half also. It's mistakes and we killed ourselves. It's a matter of us making mistakes at critical times. It hurts.
(on conservative play calling)
We did what we thought was best to win the game. If we make that play at the end of the game, there's no questions asked right now.
(on injury to T King Dunlap)
I don't know that because it was so late in the game and I don't have all of the injuries in the game. It happened late, and so I'll get an update after we're done here.
(on playing the game without key starters)
Well, you know, we've got a good football team here. That's why you've got 53 on the roster. It's a great opportunity; I think the players that had an opportunity to step in today, they did a nice job, they really did. They came in with short notice because of what happened during the week and that's all a part of the game. It's an opportunity for those guys. We had every opportunity to win the football game with the guys who were playing, we just didn't get it done at the end. We made too many mistakes throughout the game to put ourselves in a bad position.
(on CB Crezdon Butler's involvement in the second half and his preparation in short amount of time)
Well, Johnny Patrick had a cramp there for a little bit, so he came out of the game. That's when Crezdon went in. We're not going to make any excuses. If he's on our team, we coached him up as much as we could in a short amount of time. It's all a part of the game.
(on touchdown near the end of game)
Touchdown. I'm not making any excuses. I'm not going to worry about a call, what they did, what they didn't call. It was a touchdown – they won the game.
(on LB Donald Butler's active/inactive status at the beginning of game)
Well, we thought he was going to be able to go. We thought all along he was going to be able play and then after doing a little more, he told us he did not think he could do it. So, we wanted to be smart with him also, you know, take care of him also. He went in there the one time, the goal line down there and certain things, but we have to look out for his best interest also. Certain things he couldn't go 100 percent so we have to be careful. We played with the guys we played with. We tried to switch it (Tourek Williams), but we could not. It was too late to switch it. Unfortunately, we thought he was going to go the whole time. He came in afterwards, and so I guess, yes, the answer was a mistake on our part. Yes, we screwed it up.
CHARGERS QB PHILIP RIVERS
(on referees and the flag thrown against him)
Nothing I can't repeat. I don't know. I think it was for the hand wave off or whatever that they flagged for. I didn't say one thing that was out of line. Again, but that's no excuse. I'm certainly not proud of getting a penalty. It was going to be hard enough at first-and-goal at the 20. That's tough enough as it is. First-and-goal at 35 is real tough but thank goodness, Nick made the field goal. Certainly, could be a lot worse but yeah, obviously, it took a touchdown off the board there. Obviously, I have not seen the replay, I'm not sure if it was the right call or not. Obviously, that's what I was so upset about. That was a big play. It was a big play in the game. It was a touchdown and it gets called back.
(on making too many mistakes during the game)
Yeah, you know, it was just the little things. Again, we played good for the most part. We had a third-and-one that where we're up 7-0. Third-and-one at their 30ish or so; a little farther than that, obviously, I know we punted. Who knows, we get down there and take a 14-nothing or 10-nothing lead and we had that one down in there, first-and-one at the 5 and we had a touchdown taken off the board there but we get three. Then we did some good things. We had a good two-minute drive right before the half. We get the field goal blocked. In the second half, we got going, we just didn't finish a couple of those drives. We had the one really good drive for a touchdown and I thought there at the end that if we don't get the holding penalty, we're in a third-and three, third-and-four, which is a realistic deal to go get it and finish the game. Ending up third-and-10 or so, I thought was certainly the right thing to do. Pin them down there and make them go 95.
(on wanting to have the ball in hand more often)
Some of the situations. Some of it was where we were. We had the run going good. They're playing a lot of two coverage. A couple times I'm checking to the run. They just kind of take what they give us but we got into a few third downs and we didn't convert, you know. That's the thing. When you convert, you throw it more and you run it more. We went three-for-nine, I think right, on third down when the last few weeks, we'd been over 50 percent. That gets you another run, that gets you two more pass attempts, that gets you a lot of things. We're backed up that one time and it's all situation. I don't feel like we eased up by any means. You kind of let the game go as it was going. Those safeties were deep, they're playing a lot of two, two invert. I thought what we had up and the way we attacked them was right.
(on first loss to Tennessee and if the Titans were playing with a different kind of motivation to win after nine straight losses)
No, I don't think so. A lot of those guys out there playing for them had been a part of most of those losses. It's a different team, a younger team. They're a good group. We knew it was going to be a physical game down to the end. They stepped up big and got us to punt late and then their offense did a heck of a job.
**CHARGERS CB CREZDON BUTLER
(on his mindset going into the Titans' last drive)**
It's really just that it was time to step up—they called the plays, I should know them by now. I just have to go up and make that play.
(on if they were in man coverage on the Titans' game-winning touchdown reception)
Yeah, when I'm out there it's pretty much man (coverage).
(on the frustration of being so close but not getting the victory)
Oh yeah, when you're the last unit on the field you want to get that victory. We didn't come up with the play to get it.**
(on the high amount of penalties in the first half with minimal penalties in the second half)**
It was a long first half. I feel like they wanted to control the game early, and they did what they had to do. In the second half they just let us play.
**CHARGERS FS ERIC WEDDLE
(on how quickly they need to move on after a tough loss like today)**
As soon as you can—we've been through it already, against Houston, so we rebounded. Obviously, Dallas is as talented of a team as they come. No feeling sorry for ourselves, just correct it, look at the film, see what we could have done better—there are some things out there that when you get a team on the ropes you have to take advantage of it. We have to convert third downs, get off the field on third-and-10. There is stuff we can improve on, but we fought. It was good character by us. We fought until the end and just have to make plays when they come our way.
CHARGERS TE ANTONIO GATES
(on how costly their mistakes were today)
You know, that's the nature of this league. You have to play 60 minutes and this was a great example of that. Just playing all the way to the two-minute warning and then allowing them to make another play and they were able to do that. You have to take your hat off to them. They're a pretty good team and they made one more play then we did today.
(on the conservative play calling in the fourth quarter)
Anything we do complements one another whether that's offense, defense or special teams. We have all the belief in the world in our defense going out and getting the stop to help us win the football game. I don't know if you can coach up anything better than what we have going up and making that kind of play. They just made a phenomenal play to help them win the game.
(on Philip Rivers only throwing six passes in the second half)
You know, he's a guy that definitely gives us an opportunity to win football games. Every week we try to put the ball in his hands and let him make decisions. To me, the running game was doing fine. We were able to get yards on the ground; Ryan (Mathews) was running well with it as well as Ronnie Brown. With all that being said, you still have to play 60 minutes. That last drive was just things we go over in practice, circumstances and we run the clock out and let the defense go out and try and get a stop. If that situation occurred again, I don't see it happening any differently for us offensively, we have all the belief in the world in our defense.
(on his touchdown reception)
It's so hard to appreciate any type of individual accomplishment when your goal is set to go out and win collectively, that's what it is every single week. That being said, you go out and try to give it your all, and that's all I tried to do this week and it will continue next week. This is definitely a process, it's a marathon. We have 16 weeks, and hopefully we'll continue to get better throughout the year.
CHARGERS TE LADARIUS GREEN
(on making a couple of critical catches)
I had a couple of opportunities to make plays. They trust me with the ball. I was fortunate enough to make those plays. I also had a field goal blocked on me, so I still need to work on that.
(on his 34-yard reception that set up a Chargers touchdown)
It was just a little seam route across the middle. He (Phillip Rivers) laid it on the perfect spot and I just happened to make the catch. I don't know what happened. It was the perfect throw.
(on if his catch help swing the momentum in favor of San Diego)
It seemed like it helped a lot because we drove down and scored a touchdown right after that. I was just fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make the play.
(on getting some passes thrown his way)
They were playing a lot of man today because they were doubling (Antonio) Gates. So, I had no choice but to step up and try to make plays. Luckily, I stepped up and made a couple.
CHARGERS CB DEREK COX
(on Tennessee's game-winning drive)
They had one timeout. We wanted to keep them in bounds and make them use a timeout. We tried to get them to third down and get them off the field. We had opportunities, but they made their plays. We didn't. That's ultimately whey they came out on top.
(on if the late defensive lapse was due to a lack of depth or communication)
Our mentality is always the next man up. If somebody goes down then somebody has to step in. Throughout the week, we are preparing everyone to step in and make their plays. There is no fingers to be pointed. Tennessee made a play at the end.
(on if Jake Locker's scrambling ability created a problem at the end of the game)
We knew coming in that he is an effective scrambler. He's good throwing the ball when he is on the move and outside the pocket. It was something that we were aware of and we wanted to limit. When he had opportunities, he made plays with his feet.
(on if Jake Locker's first half scrambling affected the Charger's game plan in the second half)
There is nothing like the real experience to get the chance to see it. We came in at halftime and made the adjustments. I think guys stepped up and really figured out that this is something that we need to stop in order to put us in position to win the ballgame.
CHARGERS FB Le'RON McCLAIN
(on the frustrations of losing a close game at the end)
It is real frustrating. We put in hard work all week and we just didn't get the job done today. I can't accept it. I felt like we were the better team today and it just came down to one play and they made it. We have to get back and watch film on this and move on to Dallas.
(on being content to run the ball on the final offensive possession)
We are going to do any play call and we just have to go out there and execute. Whatever Whiz [offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt] calls we have to go out there and do it. I think we did a great job of taking some time off the clock. We had a great punt to back them up deep, but they just made one more play than we did today. It is frustrating, but we just have to learn from it and move on fast.
(on not second-guessing the play selection on the final drive)
I'm going to do whatever Whiz [Ken Whisenhunt] calls. You can't worry about the calls. You just have to go out there and execute. I feel like we did a great job of going out there and running the ball and taking time off the clock and putting them in a tough situation. They made a few plays and they came out with the victory.
(on the physical game and the high number of penalties)
They are a tough team and a hard-nosed team. We knew it would be a physical game. We just can't buy into the stuff that they were doing. We just to go out there and play our game and not get caught up in the stuff that they were doing and just continue to play our type of ball. That's what we did and the penalties helped us out and I wish it would have come out on our end, but it didn't.
(on what the Titans were doing that the Chargers couldn't get caught up in)
Pretty much just hitting after the whistle a little bit. We just couldn't get frustrated with that and talking and everything. It's just stuff that happens on the field. After the game we slap hands and are best of friends after the game. It's the tough part of the game between the lines when you are just battling and being competitors out there. They are a great team, and hats off to the Titans. They got the job done today. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for Dallas next week in a home game.
CHARGERS DE COREY LIUGET
(on trying to get pressure on Jake Locker)
You have to contain him. You have to get hits on him, sack him, and bring him to the ground and gang tackle him so you don't let him run out of the pocket. We didn't do a very good job of that today.
(on whether it is difficult to contain Jake Locker)
It is very hard. We were definitely coming after him, but he was just finding little cracks and everything to crawl out of.
(on if having to pay so much attention to Locker helped him on the final drive)
That really didn't play a role. He stayed back there and he tried to throw the ball. We tried to get after him, but he was dead on the money when he was rolling out of the pocket. We just had to get to him and bring him down more.
(on whether the defense was a step slow on the final drive)
That is football. It is all about timing. You have to get off the ball and create havoc on the quarterback. It is a mindset and we were trying to get there, but he kept finding little ways to get out.
(on if he thought the game came down to one play)
Yes because when you look at the film there are only going to be one or two plays and the last play was one of them. I'm sure there were a couple of more that determined it also.
