(Overall thoughts, how do you think you guys played today?) – “We knew it was going to take every man in the roster because we have some guys down. I thought some guys stepped up, and I thought they played wee – the young men that stepped up. It’s going to help us in the long run, the depth out football team. This team was 0-3, and I won’t take anything away from this victory because they’re 0-3, but they gave us everything they had. These guys, they prepared well for that. It was the first game I’ve been in where I think, offensively, we did not punt. I thought on defense we make good adjustments. We came out in the second half and we kept them from getting into the end zone and scoring any points at all. So I was proud of the way the men played today. We lost a couple of guys today. Melvin Ingram pulled a hammy. Not sure how long that’s going to be. Sean Culkin, he popped his Achilles. So we’re going to miss him. He worked his tail off at that position, and he was our starter, so we’ll have to figure that out. Overall, I’m pleased with the win. We finished this first quarter 2-2. Now we’ve got to go back and work and do everything we can to try to win the second quarter.”
(You mentioned TE Sean Culkin with the injury. It looked like LB Denzel Perryman had an injury.) – Denzel is going to be fine.”
(How much longer can you withstand losing guys each week with like you’ve been going through?) – “I’ll tell you what, I hate to see certain guys go down each week, but it is football and it happens all over the league. It’s not just us. Young men have to step up like they did today and contribute and keep it moving.
(RB Melvin Gordon was active but didn’t play today.)-“Melvin was active. )It was) very tempting to play him at the end, to try to get him some full-speed game reps. But at the same time, he’s only had a day and a half of football practice. I want him to get more practice time and more time with the guys in the offense. He’ll get some reps text week for sure.”
(Would there have been a scenario where RB Melvin Gordon would have played today?) – “If we’d have lost a back, Melvin would have played today. I thought Austin (Ekeler) and ‘Buster’ (Troymaine Pope), I thought they did a heck of a job running the ball today and protecting the quarterback.”
(Can you talk about how RB Austin Ekeler has played for the first four weeks? I mean, we saw this last year as well, but being the main guy.) – “Being the main guy, I thought he stepped up and has done a nice job. Him and J.J. (Justin Jackson) really shared the role, but Austin had the bulk of the reps. Other than the fumble in Detroit, his mistakes have been minimal and his production has been huge. So I was pleased with the way Austin played.”
(Do you worry about the dynamic at all, with as well as RB Austin Ekeler playing, adding RB Melvin Gordon in there? You said he’s going to be the number one guy once he comes bank. How do you deal with that part of it?) – “ Well, I’ve dealt with that for the last two years with those two guys. So I have no problem rolling Austin in there with Melvin. And Melvin, his reps will be limited. I can’t put him in there running 30 times next week. We’ll work him in gradually because we have a lot of confidence in Austin and (Troymaine) Pope.
(How do you feel about RB Troymaine Pope’s play, stepping up today?) – “Pope stepped up on special teams and offense.”
(What about WR Dontrelle Inman?) – “We’ll see. He had – it may have been a quad. Not sure what it is, to be honest with you. I was told a quad, nut I’m not sure how serious it is. We’ll see. He definitely did not finish the game, though.”
(How do you think WR Dontrelle Inman played before that?) – “He started out a little slow, but he picked it up. He made some critical catches for us, especially on third down.”
(It looked like P Ty Long was dealing with something during the course of the game, limping a little bit. Is there any concern about his ability to…) – “He make all his kicks. He did not struggle with that last 51-yarder. So I don’t know what you saw, but I hope you see it again next week. (Laughter)”
(CB Michael Davis got his first interception. How big a was that for his confidence?) – “That’s big because he’ had a lot of opportunities, and we call him the PBU guy – pass breakups. But he broke on a couple today and I thought he was going to get a pick and he finally got one. So I think when a guy finally has that first one, they may come in bunches. We’ll see.”
(How do you feel about the offense in the second half overall? It was kind of an issue the first couple of games.) – “Offense overall in the first half?
(Second half.) – “Other than a few penalties here and there that I did not like, I thought the offense moved the ball well. I thought we ran the ball on multiple personnel groupings. Wise passed the ball. I think the completion percentage was 81 percent. So the guys did a decent job of taking care of Phil (Rivers) as well.”
(You got G Forrest Lamp in there at left guard a little bit. Just good to get him in there, get him some reps?) – “Absolutely. I have a lot of confidence in Forrest. We have five guys we trust up front. They played tighter all last year and all of this camp. We’re just going to work Forrest mix and let him play some.”
(So that wasn’t about G Dan Geeney in terms of getting him…) – “No, not at all. This was all about Forrest, just getting Forrest some reps. I did not want him standing beside me in Year 3, so he’s going to go out there and play.”
(On both of his touchdown passes, QB Philip Rivers moved around a little bit out of the pocket, made some plays. We haven’t see a lot of that out of him. What did you think?) – “That was awesome. I mean, first of all, him moving around the pocket and the guys responding to him in the scramble drill, I mean, it’s just like we practiced. It was good to see execution of it in the game today.”
