FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sunday, November 27, 2016 POSTGAME QUOTES FROM HOUSTON TEXANS Head Coach Bill O Brien T Duane Brown DE Jadeveon Clowney TE Ryan Griffin CB Kareem Jackson RB Lamar Miller QB Brock Osweiler NT Vince Wilfork HEAD COACH BILL O BRIEN (Transcribed by Katie Karsh) Can you give us your overall assessment of the loss? Yeah, tough loss. We got to regroup. Come back tomorrow and watch the tape and then move on to Green Bay. Would you consider playing QB Tom Savage? No. We re going to come in here tomorrow. We re going to correct mistakes and move on to Green Bay. Is QB Brock Osweiler definitely your starting quarterback? We re going to come in here tomorrow. We re going to correct mistakes and we re going to move on to Green Bay. You guys are usually good about penalties, but you got a lot today. What do you think happened? I m not sure. I got to watch. I don t know. How disappointing is it to have all of those penalties? Anytime you lose the penalty battle, it s not good. We got to really watch the tape and see the technique and see what they were calling. Things like that. A lot of defensive holding calls and then obviously we got probably two or three or four defensive offsides so that s not good. Did the Chargers offense do something different than you were expecting? No. I mean, how many yards? What d they have, 300 yards? I don t know. No. They had a good game plan and we battled but made too many mistakes and lost the game. You had a lot of first half penalties and were slow to get going. Were you surprised at the lack of fire and execution from the team after playing well against Oakland? I thought these guys came out - I didn t notice that. I guess you noticed that more than I did. I guess that s just two differing opinions. I respect your opinion. I just I thought our guys were energized, ready to play. We just didn t play well. Didn t coach well. Didn t play well. There s a lot of season left. Like I said, we ve got to come in here tomorrow. We really got to look at the tape together as a team and a coaching staff and get it fixed and start getting ready for Green Bay. What disappoints you the most about your performance? Just the fact that, you know, it looked like we started out pretty well and then just couldn t do anything consistently on offense. Then the defense was out there quite a bit. I thought they played hard. Gave up some plays here and there. Just disappointing to lose. It s horrible. On the first turnover, QB Brock Osweiler made a nice move to invade the tacklers but he got picked off. Did he make the right decision there? I mean, he s just trying to make a play. It s probably a six inch difference between completing the pass and not completing the pass. He s trying to make a play for his team and they made a good play on that. I think it was (Craig) Mager. He made a good play on it and those things happen. I mean, I think that was just him trying to make a play and it just didn t work out.
You talked about putting this loss behind you and getting ready for Green Bay. What will you do differently offensively to be more consistent? I would say right now, I would have no idea five minutes after that game just ended. We re going to try to work to make sure that we have a good game plan for Green Bay, teach it to the players and hopefully we can coach it good enough and we can execute it good enough that we can go out there and play better on offense against Green Bay. The turnover differential this year has not been good, particularly in this game. How do you fix that? Yeah. I don t know. I don t know. If I knew, I d definitely have the answer to fix it. Do you know what I mean? I just I have no idea. We ve got to stop turning it over on offense. We got it on defense, but you know, we turn it over too much on offense so that s really what happens. If you don t turn it over and you get one takeaway, you ve got a real shot to win games, but when you turn it over on offense, you really put yourself in a big time hole. When QB Brock Osweiler hit TE C.J. Fiedorowicz on the third-and-goal when he was at the 2-yard line, did you consider or think about going for it on fourth-and-goal? Yeah. It looked like he was out of bounds at the three and I felt like kicking a field goal right there was the best decision at the time. T DUANE BROWN (Transcribed by Allie LeClair) Do you feel like the offense took a step back today? It wasn t our best outing not by any means. Not running the ball, like I said, a few turnover. They got the best of us in pass protection. Just all around a bad outing for us. How frustrating is it to have a game like this so far into the season? Very frustrating. November, December, January you want to play your best football. Whenever you play at home, you expect to come out and play like that. We didn t do that. Still have a lot to play for, still have a lot in front of us. We have a lot to clean up this week. Something you pride yourself in throughout the season is discipline. A lot of penalties today. What was the most disappointing part of the game for you? That was part of it. We are a very disciplined team, but penalties, like I said, just hurting ourselves and taking care of the football. I thought we had a good game plan going in, but we didn t execute it. Everybody could have played better, myself included. We all have to look in the mirror and see what we can do better. We have another opportunity to go out there and correct it next week. We have to do that. Does it feel like it s a little bit of the offense s fault since you only put up 13 points? Absolutely. We feel like we have a lot of talent on this offense. We feel like we can put up points. We had opportunities to do that. Thirteen points is not enough, especially when our defense does a pretty great job. That s a great quarterback they have over there, good offense, great running back. You have to put points on the board. We weren t able to do that. DE JADEVEON CLOWNEY (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) What are your thoughts about how this game turned out? We didn t start fast as a team. We should ve won the game. I don t think we re playing up to what we re used to playing like the past few weeks, and we have to get back to that. How tough is it to get to QB Philip Rivers with the quick release that he has? They re tough, but there were times we were back there on him a lot. I felt like we were hitting him a lot, getting to him. We should ve kept coming with a lot more pressure out there, but the game got away from us. We got behind, we tried to fight back. We don t like being down. I don t know how many times we ve been down at half, but a lot, at home anyway. We should ve came out in the second half better than we did. What do you think the key is to moving on from this game?
We know what we have in this locker room. I think we re still in first place in our division. We don t have anything to worry about. We have a lot of football left, and take it one game at a time, get ready for Green Bay, and we look forward to going up there and getting a win. How difficult are the sudden changes when there is a turnover and you re right back on the field? Very difficult. It puts us in tough spots, but it happens. You have to go out there and bow up. We did it a lot last week against Oakland: we bowed up on the goal line and gave up three (points), that was good. We should ve come out here and bowed up against (the Chargers) when the offense turned the ball over. We just try to control the game. Defense, we have to go out there and play better. We can t have any letdowns week by week. We set the tone, and we let this thing get away from us. TE RYAN GRIFFIN (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) How frustrating is this loss today? Different kinds of frustrating, really. Coming off of last week, I thought we played tough and this week I didn t think we played tough, honestly. You know, we got to look at ourselves in the mirror and watch some film and see where we can get better and turn the page to Green Bay. Can you put your finger on why that is? Never got into a rhythm offensively, really, short and choppy. The defense did a good job of holding up. We knew it was going to be a shootout with Philip (Rivers) on the other side. It was a tough one, we just didn t score enough points. Do you feel that the offense took a step back today? I am not going to sit here and be the offensive coordinator. I know that I did not play to good enough to win today and that s all I know. The way that the team played offensively last week, were you all expecting something much different today? Yeah, every week you expect to get better. That is a standard that we put in place here since OB (Bill O Brian) came in. You know, improve every week, win, lose, or tie, whatever it is just get better and we didn t do that. CB KAREEM JACKSON Was there anything that caught you off guard out there today? For the most part, no. They pretty much did everything we saw on film. Is there a different type of frustration since things did not go your way today? Anytime you lose you re always frustrated regardless of how it plays out, regardless of what happens. When you lose it s frustrating. Did the referee tell you what was wrong with the penalty that you received? Was it launching yourself? No, they didn t explain it, didn t say launching or anything. He just threw the flag, so I mean I m not really sure why. Do you feel like you are kind of falling back on what you are trying to go for this late in the season with the last two games? I mean its football man; I wouldn t really say we are falling back. At the end of the day we want to come out and we want to win, you know and it didn t happen today, watch the film, make corrections and move on to the next game RB LAMAR MILLER (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) How frustrating is it when the offense moves the ball into the red zone and has to settle for field goals?
We just have to do a great job of just being on the same page. Once we get down there in the red zone, we have to put points on the scoreboard, especially in this time of year. We just have to find a way to take advantage of the red zone opportunities. Has it been an issue with the offense being on the same page? No, not really. We just have to capitalize once we get down there. We just have to make plays, that s pretty much it. Can you take us through your fumble? That s all my fault. I think (San Diego S Dwight Lowery) did a good job of just getting his helmet on the ball. I just have to do a good job of just holding on to it. What do you think will be the key to improving and moving on from this loss? Just come back in, make some corrections, watch film tomorrow: just build off it. It s December football now, so we just have to be on the same page and move forward. Do you think coming off the short week and San Diego coming off the bye week was a factor? No, not at all. There s no excuses. We just have to make plays. Despite the loss, are you still encouraged with the rest of the season ahead of you? This is a long season. We still have a couple more games left, so we just have to build on this and just come ready to work. How disappointing will it be when you turn on the film and see the turnovers? It s very disappointing, including my fumble. I have to do a good job of just holding on to the ball. I have to improve on that, but of course we don t want any turnovers. We just have to find a way to stay consistent and just find the end zone, pretty much." QB BROCK OSWEILER (Transcribed by Stephanie Weaver & Carrington Gilbert) How would you evaluate your performance today on the field? I think today personally was very disappointing. I felt like our defense played a tremendous game. I felt like our defense battled for all four quarters, all 60 minutes. They kept us in the game. They played tough. They played hard. I thought our special teams did great things and I really felt like the other guys out there on the field offensively played extremely hard and played well. Bottom line, I didn t play very good today. I feel like I left a lot out there on the field that I could have done much better. I could have done a much better job in certain situations. Certainly that second turnover, I feel like I made the correct read, the ball just got away from me and it sailed. That was definitely a turnover that we didn t need at that point in time. So, like I said, I just felt like the rest of the football team today, especially the defense, the special teams, the offensive line, I really felt like those guys truly went out there and battled and played great football. Bottom line, I need to play better for us to win. I feel like our team gave us the opportunity to win today and I didn t play up to what I m capable of doing. That s on me and I ll get that cleaned up. How disappointing is it for you guys not to be able to score much? It s extremely disappointing. Our job as an offensive unit is to score touchdowns and put together multiple drives that result in touchdowns every single week. We ve struggled with that this year. I can t quite put my thumb on that, but I will certainly always stand up and point the finger at myself. Bottom line, being the quarterback of this football team, having the ball in my hand every single play, I need to find a way for us to score touchdowns. Certainly a lot more touchdowns going forward. Is there something to see in what Chargers QB Philip Rivers does and his consistency? Certainly, studying other great quarterbacks is something that I always do and still do. When I was a backup in Denver for three and a half years, I would take time throughout the week to pick a different quarterback and study him. How he played, and how he would take what the defense would give him. Philip s no different, I would study Phillip and it s still something I continue to do. Obviously, I don t get to spend as much time at it, but anytime I can watch another quarterback play, I m certainly doing it. Because I believe that you always have room to improve and you can always get better by watching others.
Do you feel that there been a consistent theme with the interceptions you have thrown this year? No, I don t. I think every interception really has a different story. The first one today came off a play-action fake. Had to scramble. Got outside the pocket. I saw (DeAndre) Hopkins. I knew it was man-to-man coverage. Didn t see the defender trailing behind him, and I thought we were going to have a big play along the sideline. The defensive back made a tremendous play intercepting that ball. The second interception today, like I said, I read the coverage right. It was the exact play that we wanted versus that coverage. I just threw an inaccurate pass. I threw the ball too high to C.J. (Fiedorowicz), but when you go back and you watch the tape, you ll see there s a big window there if I put it on C.J. And then obviously the third interception is a Hail Mary situation. I think every interception has a different story to it. Unfortunately it s happening too often, but that is something that I ll study very hard tonight, study very hard tomorrow as well. I ll continue to move forward and try to improve. Do you feel like you are forcing it in those situations like with the first interception to WR DeAndre Hopkins along the sideline? No, I don t. Like I said, I knew it was man-to-man coverage. I got flushed outside the pocket. I saw DeAndre, and I thought I had time to make an accurate throw along the sideline for a big play. I didn t feel like I was forcing it at all. If I felt like the defensive back was in a position to intercept that ball, I would have just launched it out of bounds. So, once again, I was just trying to help our football team out and make the play in that situation. Does your optimism continue as you work to get things on the right track and that you can be the kind of offense that you want to have? Absolutely. We still have a lot of season left, and we have so much to play for. This season s a very long year. I know we have had some ups, we ve had some downs, and you would like to see steady improvement but sometimes, that doesn t take place. But I m very optimistic about what this football team can accomplish. All of our goals are right in front of us to accomplish. We control our own destiny. Obviously, today did not go the way we wanted it to. Like I said, I m going to put that on my shoulders. I believe our team played great football, but I did not. I know we can accomplish what we want to, and we ll keep plugging away. We ll come in. We ll study the film very hard tomorrow, and then we ll move forward. But like I said, I m very optimistic about what this team can accomplish because this is a damn good football team, and like I said, I let them down today. I need to play better. NT VINCE WILFORK (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) What happened with the defense today? Yeah, we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, but (San Diego) they played a good football game. They executed well. We didn t make enough plays. You sum it up like that. At the end we had a chance, but we just dug a hole too big to get up out of it. We have to continue to fight: continue to fight, continue to get better and move on. That s all you can do right now. Did you get what you expected from QB Philip Rivers? Oh yeah, we knew they were going to come in and play well, which they did. We had our moments, we had our chances and we just didn t get the job done. At the end of the day, we didn t get the job done. We have to get back to watch film and correct some things and be better and execute. I think we had some good game plans and good scheme, but we have to be able to execute, especially in critical moments and stuff. There s some good things we did tonight, but not good enough. How will this team try to come together and push past adversity? That s what football is. You have to be able to look at your wins and losses, see what you did well, see what you didn t do so well, and correct the things that you didn t do well and try to build on the things you did well. This is a good football team, we have a good football team. We come to work. It s not lack of effort, it s not lack of playing hard, it s just being able to execute well; that s what it boils down to. I don t think there s anybody that s going to come into this locker room tomorrow with their heads down. We re upset because you lost, but at the same time, when it s time to work we work, we just have to execute more. POSTGAME QUOTES FROM SAN DIEGO CHARGERS Head Coach Mike McCoy S Jahleel Addae
DE Joey Bosa CB Casey Hayward TE Hunter Henry WR Dontrelle Inman QB Philip Rivers FB Derek Watt HEAD COACH MIKE MCCOY (Transcribed by Hannah Pietsch and Nathan Edwards) Opening Statement What a great team win. I just mentioned to the team the mindset, the attitude they came back with after the bye week, there was a reason why we gave them the week off leading up to this game. They came back Monday ready to go, did a great job. We were in pads for the first time like you guys all saw Wednesday what a great practice that was. The preparations, the instincts of guys going out there and playing, coming on the road against a team who was undefeated here very well coached, very talented team. We knew it was going to be a major challenge for us, but couldn t be happier with the way all three phases played in today s game. Big win for our team. How important was it for the team to start decently fast after the bye week? I think every game you re trying to do that. It s not just a game after a break. Every game you re going in to, you want to start fast and then continue to keep on playing and build it up. This is a good team, so we knew it was going to be a challenge. It was going to be one play, one series at a time in all phases. Defensively, that s a good defense. We knew our front had a major challenge ahead of them. What we had to do to protect Philip (Rivers), to run the football, then you start involving the receivers on safeties and secondary players whether it s a fullback, a tight end blocking their outside linebackers, their inside backers. We knew it wasn t going to be easy, but we said, Hey, we re just going to keep pounding. We re going to keep on going, keep on running the football. And they re going to pop out of there like you saw a couple of times. We had a few penalties that hurt us today and put us in a bad situation, but we recovered at times, but it s just a great team effort. Turnovers were huge for the defense two by FS Dwight Lowery, one by CB Casey Hayward. Your team was the only team coming in to this week with an interception in every game. How big has that been for your defense? You forgot to mention that last one. Don t forget about that last one. That was a big play to end the game the right way. That s been something our defense has done an outstanding job with. I believe we had 19 coming in to this game, so they ve done a great job creating turnovers. That s something we talk about all offseason long, training camp, but this year, during the season, we ve done a great job of doing that. We ve made the most of our opportunities of getting those picks today when we needed them. SS Jahleel Addae didn t have a pick today, but he made his presence felt. What was it like to have him back in today? We ve been talking about this for a long time. Unfortunately, in the Jacksonville game when Jahleel went down he s one of those players that just shows up every day, doesn t matter what day of the year it is, he works his tail off. When you do it the right way, good things are going to happen. Unfortunately, he had the injury in Week 2, and I just kept on telling him as he started getting closer a couple of weeks out, Just remember this, buddy, you re one day closer. I can t wait for you to get out here. I love you, buddy. I want you on the field with us, but you ve just got to keep on going. Things happen for a reason, and you ve just got to keep on fighting. It s great to get his fire, his passion for the game, back out on the back end for us. It seemed like QB Philip Rivers started to figure things out during the second and third quarters that s when he started to get dialed in. You mentioned how tough that defensive front is. Did it just take some time to figure out where the holes were? We missed a couple of opportunities at times during the game, and then you hit the big plays. I think the coordinators did a phenomenal job at dialing things up at certain times in today s game. One of big things coming into the game was when the shots are there, we ve got to hit them. They re going to give us some looks in the game. Dontrelle s (Inman) two touchdown passes that we had for shots, one down, a long one down in the red area, we threw the post over the top. Those are plays we said, Hey, against this team, it s tough. It s tough sledding like it was early on, at different times during the game, so when we can take that shot to go the distance in one play, or advance 20 or 30 yards downfield against a good defense, you ve got to do that and that s what we did today.
There was a noticeable celebration on the sideline between you and Defensive Coordinator John Pagano after the defense forced them out to start the second half. What was the significance of seeing your defense respond in that situation? I could have bet a million dollars you were going to ask about that and say something about that today. We ve been talking about it all week, all year long really, because we d given up the six scores like you and I talked about. We should have been off the field earlier. Unfortunately, we had a little breakdown on the first third down, so we got beat inside when we ve got to keep inside leverage, and then we should be off the field there. And all of a sudden, we rallied and we made that next play on the third down stop to get off the field. And that s what it s all about. There s a number of times this year where we haven t done that, but give the defense credit for responding and doing it. What impresses you most about WR Dontrelle Inman? Well, I go back to years ago when you look outside and the sprinklers are on and you see him and Eddie Royal there, I don t know, an hour or so after practice or after a workout whatever we were doing that day and those two guys, they first started up on the hill, running, and all of a sudden they re at the JUGS machine, and all of a sudden they re in between sprinklers and all they re doing is just moving around so they get their work in. Dontrelle only knows one way to do it, and I think it took him some time to get his opportunity, and once we gave him that opportunity, he ran with it. I think if you talk to Philip (Rivers), there s certain routes that I know he wants that guy out there catching the ball at certain times of the game. He has so much trust in him, but that s built over time, and it s a trust factor from any quarterback to receiver. When you get that relationship with him, you say, OK, I know I can count on that player on these certain things. But Dontrelle has been someone that once he got his opportunity, we knew it was going to be hard to take him off the field. It started in the kicking game but he just kept on doing it a certain way and impressing the coaches, and then he got an opportunity to play more on offense and I said, OK, this is one of your guys you re going to count on. And then there s a number of injuries this year and now, all of sudden, he became that guy on offense that we re going to have to rely on, and he s done a phenomenal job with it. I can t be happier for a guy like him. What did you see from the defensive line, especially without NT Brandon Mebane? I was so excited last night in the team meeting because of the way the players worked this week. One of the days we came off the field without Brandon and Giff (Smith) said, That was the best D-line individual I ve had all year. Those guys work their tails off because they know each one of them is going to have an opportunity to play in the game and have an impact on the game because of the way we ve been rotating guys since the opener. If you have a uniform, you re playing and we re counting on you to step up and play at a certain level. Not that it wasn t that way in the past, but it s just different. It s a new year. Some new guys here. So, each year things change and the mindset of your team changes, how your team is built. I can t be happier with the way those guys played. I know Damion (Square), I mentioned the first day in the meeting that this is an opportunity for you and whoever else gets in the rotation at nose for us as time goes on. We re going to play a number of guys and we re going to have to switch. Then, Tenny (Palepoi) was out of the game for a little bit and came back in and Joey (Bosa) went you know, it s one of those things when you have those guys that have a certain mindset that we re going to play a certain way, good things happen. That s why I m so happy about this team, is the way they worked this week and came out and it showed. CB Casey Hayward got his sixth interception today, which is among the league leaders. Are you surprised more people aren t talking about him nationally? Keep it that way. I mean, hey, he s a great one. I m so happy he s here. He s leading the league and look, just turn the film on. The film doesn t lie. He s had a phenomenal year and he deserves a lot of credit for helping our defense. He s done a great job of fitting in I think we ve talked about it a number of times in the secondary, and you guys saw him all offseason and through training camp, just the way he s played. He s becoming more of a leader. Each week he s played you can hear him more. The things he says to me during the game way back when, I love those type of guys that just come in here, just do their job and stay positive regardless of what the score is and what the situation is. There s no panic in his game. That was a big play for us. Big-time play for him. S JAHLEEL ADDAE (Transcribed by Julien Demers) What s it been like watching your team from the sidelines over the past two months?
It s been tough, I m the type of guy that plays with energy. I love the game, I love my teammates and the only thing I could do was be a third coach in the secondary. Let the guys know what I m seeing, pointing out tips and pointers. Being out there today, it s a blessing and I thank God for allowing me to get back from the injury that I had and being able to contribute to a win. How much does this one mean to you then? A game that you guys were calling a must-win game? It means everything because it s the next game. After today, it s not going to mean that much. We got to focus on Tampa. Have you ever been penalized before for choreographed celebration? Never, it wasn t choreographed. Dwight Lowery got low, I got low with him. I was happy for my teammate. I play with passion. I play with energy. That s how it is. I guess they called it as choreographing, but it wasn t. You re the longest tenured member of the secondary. Do you feel like you re an extra coach out there? Do you feel like your experience can really help these guys in the middle of the game? I do, but I wouldn t look at me as the oldest guy of the group. I feel like we hold each other accountable. I just try to go out there and communicate as much as I can. Being the quarterback of the defense and safeties, I make the checks. I play with passion, and I feel if I do that and play with energy and hard and play my game, guys will feed off of that. It s contagious. DE JOEY BOSA (Transcribed by Julien Demers) You realize you got 4.5 sacks and you have five games to go. J.J. Watt had 5.5 his rookie season? Yeah, well I mean hopefully one day I ll get two 20-sack seasons in a row. Until then. You guys left a lot of sacks out there today? Yeah, it s a bummer. When we pull out a win like this, our job as a D-line is to affect the quarterback. I think we did. We did a really good job of affecting him today. He got out of the pocket more than a few times. We just got to work on finishing. We know it s there. We are getting to the quarterback, we just have to get him to the ground. What did you notice in the film that made your job much easier today? You know, being a rookie, just getting back here, it s been a lot of me physically getting ready for the game. The mental part is still coming, because I m still young and I m still learning it. Of course I study my tackles, their tendencies and stuff, but I really like going out and reacting. Obviously going through a whole week of practice with all of the different sets, you know it s coming. I kind of like being out there and just reacting, getting a feel for the O- line. It s like a chess match really. Did you see Texans QB Brock Osweiler rattled? Yeah, we hit him a few times, but he got a couple first downs with his feet, which was one of our goals not to let happen. I mean, I think if we finished the opportunities that we had today, it would be zero points on the board. Always room for improvement, and I m happy that our defense was playing well and actually getting there. It s not like we were getting locked at the line. CB CASEY HAYWARD (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) Do you look forward to facing challenging receivers such as Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins? Yes. (They re) character builders, almost. When they give you the opportunity to match up with some of these great receivers, you just try to, not shut them down, but you just try to limit those guys. Those guys are good players. Each and every week we go against some good players and each and every week hopefully we can slow them down and prevent them from scoring. I think they only had 13 points today, which is a good thing for our defense. We gave up three too many because we had them at ten. We were trying to keep them there. Overall, when you re matching up against those guys just try to stay consistent and stay in front of them and play consistent ball. You lead the NFL in interceptions now with six, do you feel like you re getting the attention you deserve?
I don t know. I don t really care about all of that, I just worry about wins and losses. We won today, that was amazing for us and if I can keep getting interceptions to help us win, that s amazing as well. I really don t worry about what other people say. I let everybody else rank people and players and things like that and I just continue to try to win. Why do you feel like you ve had so much success in this system? Is it a good fit for what you do? It s definitely a good fit for what I do. We kind of run similar things in what I did when I played for my other team as well. It s very similar to this man concept, we play a lot of man here, (I) played a lot of man where I was so it s kind of easy to adapt. I made a lot of plays in the past and now I m doing the same. My first year I had six, I m matching that and hopefully I can beat that. How important was it to limit Texans RB Lamar Miller to 56 yards on the ground today? Amazing. That s what we talked about all week, stopping the run and playing good second half ball. We did that. Coach (Mike) McCoy put an amazing emphasis on not giving up a touchdown or points at all at the start of the second half and we did that. We could ve had a three-and-out, but it doesn t matter. We got off the field and that was just an amazing thing. Stop the run, not the let the ball go over our head and play good second half ball. TE HUNTER HENRY (Transcribed by Julien Demers) For your touchdown, they basically schemed that off of film, did they? We had a design that we felt we could take advantage of. We kind of put big people in there to make it look like a run and we motioned everybody out. Put one of our fullbacks out to spread them out, so it could be a matchup inside. What kind of confidence does QB Philip Rivers give you? Oh, I mean he s a confident dude. His confidence in the huddle just makes everybody else very confident. What did you guys think coming in here today that gave you confidence? We just came off a bye, so everybody was really excited to be back out there. We have a six-game stretch here. This is the first one, and we have to get all six. This is the first of six. We kind of have our backs against the wall, so we came out fighting and it was fun to see. What s wrong with the Texans defense? They are good, I m not going to say that at all. They made it very tough for us to move the ball. We just took advantage of some different mismatches that we could do. WR DONTRELLE INMAN (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) How big was this win today? It was big; we have to win out. Every time we step on the field, every play matters, every play counts. We strap up, we get together and we have to play from top to bottom, from the punter, (Drew) Kaser, all the way down to the long snapper, Mike Windt. It all matters. Chargers QB Philip Rivers and Head Coach Mike McCoy talked about the team s strong mentality, did you see that this week? If you re ever in a situation where you have to win, your life depends on if you have to win, that s just the nature of our football team. We know we have to win each matchup. We may lose here and there, we re not perfect. But, the mentality is even if we get knocked down we re going to get right back up, because we have to win out. Can you take us through your 52-yard touchdown reception and talk about the trust you have with Chargers QB Philip Rivers? All I can think about is just the beginning and the end. The beginning where he calls the play and the end where I caught the ball. The in-between is kind of blurry, I just know it was a great call by coach Wiz (Ken Wisenhunt) and we executed it in practice well, we didn t execute it in practice, but we executed it in the game so it was great. What goes through your mind after Houston recovers the onside kick late in the fourth quarter?
I try not to think negative. We were like, okay, let s win, we still have to win. So all of the negative stuff is in the past. QB PHILLIP RIVERS (Transcribed by Alison Chastain) It seems like it was WR Dontrelle Inman s day today. Can you talk about his performance? He s a guy that I always thought of as a quarterback and as a coach - if you want one quality for a player, you want them to have dependability. Dontrelle (Inman) is a good player. He makes plays. He runs good routes. He does those things. His main thing is he is dependable. You can count on him to run the right route, to play any position, to do his job everyday. That is what we thought we were getting when we got him from Canada. Frank (Reich) had talked to the coach he played for in Canada and he said if I had 41, or however big their roster is, Dontrelle s (Inman), I would have a heck of a team. He had a heck of a day. Tyrell (Williams) made some big plays as well. We ran the ball well enough. Melvin (Gordon_ ran hard. The offensive line fought like crazy. It was a team effort for sure. Hunter (Henry) had a big touchdown after Dontrelle s (Inman) play and then the penalty. Everyone had a hand in it. What does it mean for this team to come off the bye week and make this statement on the road? This is big for us playing a division leader and sitting at 4-6. We knew this was a huge game. I liked our mentality all week. I m sure Mike (McCoy) said it. We had a great mentality all week long coming back from the bye week and a terrible loss in a game where I threw four picks in the 4 th quarter. We weren t in uncharted territory being 4-6, but for me, I was. Losing a game like that. We came back with a good mentality. Playing a division leader, we were fired up about that. We had a good frame of mind and we played with confidence on both sides of the ball. WR Dentrolle Inman seems to have made the difficult catches more often. What does that mean for you? He has made a lot of them. I would love to go back and watch how many catches he has had this year and how many of them were really not great throws. Even the crossing route he caught and then got about 20 yards, it s behind him and he slows down and makes it look easy with a great catch. He s had a handful of them. He has real good body control. He is a guy running in routes and running things. He finds the ball and then has body control to slow down and make those adjustments. Huge day for him. Take us through the 52-yard reception by WR Dontrelle Inman. It was a great call by Wiz (Ken Whisenhunt). We got them in the coverage we wanted before the play. He just ran a little hand in palm and the safety bent just enough. I had to let it go early. We had an empty set. There were five guys and they fought like crazy, but there was a guy coming free right there early so I had to throw it early and I was afraid I overthrew it. He did a great job on that one too just staying so thin where he can find that wall and make that adjustment. It s fun and especially today because the three touchdown passes all came up exactly how you draw them up. They gave us the coverage we wanted on the play. You put them in for those reasons. That s how you get touchdowns. It s nice when they come up like you want them to and they execute, that is gratifying. You took a couple of shots from the Texans defensive line. Did they live up to your expectations? It s a good defensive front and it s a good secondary. That is a good defense. I was riding in today reading the Houston paper and reading how they re fifth in defense. I was reading all the different things you know about them, but I don t pay attention to some of those statistics. We knew we were coming into a good defense. Romeo (Crennel) has been in this league a long time and he did a great job taking away Antonio (Gates) and he doubled him. You know when he was in Kansas City, he would treat him like a punt gunner. He literally had two guys on him. I was hoping they weren t going to go to that, but they went to the next step, the first level down, which was having guys all over him and underneath him and not ever letting him get going. Big fan of CB Casey Hayward, how does he help you as a quarterback? It s huge and we got to capitalize on them. Obviously the one I want back is my interception. We get a turnover, we get a holding penalty and then we get back on third and ten and the probability of hitting that is about one out of ten. I know it when I throw it. We should punt it and regroup. But our defense did an awesome job. Casey (Hayward) has such a knack for the football. He is such a smart player. I say that with all respect to his ability. He is a heck of a corner. I thought of that of him when he played for Green Bay. He really gets it and I ve been around him now for five to six months. That part helps the skill he has that he knows what is going on. He has been an accurate addition for us.
3,000 yards for an eleventh straight season, what does that mean for you? I don t know. Some of these different ones that are coming up, some mean more than others. The one about the career touchdowns is the most meaningful as I can think of recently. I think that is another one to me, as a team, it is a team achievement. I know this hasn t been the same team, but a lot of guys contribute to yards. A lot of guys have a lot of touchdowns and a lot of guys have yards too. There is somebody blocking, somebody on the end of all this making catches. From a personal standpoint, I think I m thankful to be out there. The fact that there is over 3,000 for an eleventh season, that means I have been out there for all of them and that is something I don t take for granted. They were 5-0 at home this year, how does it feel to come out here and get the win? I don t want to get too into bulletin board stuff but I like that this team is undefeated at home so let s go change that. It was in my head kind of all week that we could stop the streak at six in a row, I think going back to last year. It is a good win. That s a good team. That s a team leading their division. It s not like they are all of a sudden bottom of the barrel. That team is going to battle the Colts and Tennessee down to the wire. It s a good team. We got a chance and we are back to where we were just two weeks removed. We are at a chance to get to 6-6. We wanted to be 5-5 after the Miami game so we got chance to go back to 6-6 and set the stage for what we do. FB DEREK WATT (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) What was it like playing in Houston today? It was good to see my parents. They got to support both us, they love us both. Unfortunately, J.J. (Watt) was not here today, but they support us both regardless. He is doing well and it was good to see him. How is he recovering, is he OK? Yeah, he is doing well. He is recovering well, he is on pace to get back. Do you wish you had the chance to block him up? Yeah, obviously that would have been a pretty special experience. You know, we never had that opportunity in athletic competition outside of just messing around stuff. He s got to get healthy. Are you still going to talk trash? You know, we won the game, yeah. I got that over him now. He wasn t out there and I am not going to talk trash about it. You know, it is what it is. -END-