Here's what Brandon Staley, Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, Derwin James and Mike Williams had to say after Sunday's win against the Pittsburgh Steelers:
Head coach Brandon Staley on the Chargers' win
"I'm extremely proud of our football team, as proud as I've been of our football team the entire year. That environment was really, really challenging for us. We stayed together that fourth quarter. We stayed together the whole game. We played with tremendous energy tonight. I felt the Powder Blues the whole game in all three phases...
"We were ready for it because we played nine games before today where we've been preparing for a fourth quarter like that. When the fourth quarter happened the way it did, our guys stayed connected. We played our best at the end. We finished the game on our terms. I can't say enough about our players and coaches because that's as good of a win as we've had."
Brandon Staley on Justin Herbert's performance
"He was fantastic in the game today. He was the best player on the field. He has real instincts at the game for the position. He has real instincts at the game. His legs, today, really helped us win that football game. What happens is if you're trying to play this guy a certain type of way, if you're going to try to play this split-safety man-under [coverage], and you're in a four-man rush, well, the one guy that they're not accounting for is the quarterback. When it's drained out and he sees daylight, now he becomes a tailback. He moves the chains. That's part of your job as a quarterback. Part of your job as a quarterback is to move the chains by any means necessary and that's what he did tonight."
Brandon Staley on Austin Ekeler
"He's a complete player. I think that's the thing I love about the guy, that he's a complete player. He's a threat in the run game, a threat in the past game, pass protection. He has real toughness. That's how we're trying to build this program, with guys like him that are tough Ball-Playing Jessies. That's what he is. He had four touchdowns in an NFL game, which is really hard to achieve. It's going to help his fantasy and all that. He's into that. He has this lucrative career that he's building and today was a good step in helping that empire."
Brandon Staley on Andrew Brown, Breiden Fehoko, Joe Gaziano and Forrest Merrill stepping up with starters out
"We have four undrafted players who were holding the rope for us. [Defensive Line Coach] Giff Smith is doing a heck of a job coaching them. Just an incredible, gutsy coaching and playing performance by those guys. I'm so proud of them. I told you guys on Friday that I felt like we would play that way. We played well around them in the run front. That allowed us to play the way we wanted to play. I feel like those four guys deserve so much praise for the way they competed tonight. I'm just so proud of them. They played with the warrior spirit that we expect. It was a tremendous performance by that group."
Quarterback Justin Herbert on rushing for a career-high 90 yards on Sunday
"You just have to convert, whether that's by the ground or through the air. If there are open rush lanes and guys are getting covered, and no one's playing defense on the quarterback, you have to kind of step up and find a way to get through the line. I thought the line did a great job of protecting me and making sure those lanes were wide enough to run through."
Herbert on his mindset from the win and moving forward
"It is a next-play mentality. Success is never going to be a straight line to the top. You are going to have your ups and downs. Adversity is going to happen. We have certainly faced that over the past couple of years and I think that we have done a great job answering. We are not always perfect and we do not always win. There are definitely things we need to clean up from this game, but to be able to keep growing and keep developing, that is what's most important for us."
Herbert his connection with the offense
"I think it all starts with the guys up front. Our offensive line has done a great job battling all year and they gave me plenty of time to throw the ball today. To have those guys on the outside, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, [TE] Jared Cook, [RB] Austin Ekeler; those guys make plays. They make my job so much easier. All I have to do is get them the ball and something is going to happen."
Safety Derwin James on being able to pull off the win against the Steelers
"I felt like we finished as a team. It didn't always go as we scripted it, but they battled back, they got some momentum and we put the fire out. We got the job done, we got the win … We knew our offense was going to go down and score, so we just knew that were going to have the chance to go back out there and win the game."
Running back Austin Ekeler on how significant the win was
"We took a right step, it's a step in the right direction. It takes a few steps in the right direction to continue to get wins, to get enough wins to get to the playoffs at the end…regardless win or lose, if we play consistent like that it's going to be hard for people to beat us. We got the guys, I think the guys played well on offense making a lot of great plays, especially [Justin Herbert]."
Take a frame-by-frame look at Austin Ekeler run in his 4th touchdown during Sunday Night Football against the Steelers at SoFi Stadium.
Wide receiver Mike Williams on his game winning touchdown
"We called an out route to Keenan [Allen] and obviously the corners were playing a lot of cover two. The corners were cut in the flat real hard, Justin told me 'Be ready' gave me an opportunity to make a play. I felt like nobody was going to stop me from getting in the end zone on that play, so I just ran straight to the end zone."
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