Here's what head coach Brandon Staley, Joey Bosa and Justin Jones had to say during Monday's press conference.
Brandon Staley on the Chargers' pass rush
"Our third-down defense has been excellent. Third down-and-four or more has been excellent throughout the entire year. I think that's been a real strength of our defense. The types of coverages that we've played, the types of pressure systems that we've played, I think that's a real strength of our defense right now. Sack production, that will come with the more leads that we have. That's more of a team operation. The way that we've rushed and covered, which is really what pass defense is — it's rush and coverage — I feel like that's been a strength of our team so far."
Brandon Staley on how Justin Herbert can learn from Sunday's game against the Patriots
"What happened yesterday is part of the NFL — for both of us, it's part of the NFL. And that's what beautiful about it, is that you are going to learn a lot. He's got that inventory that he can draw from. He's got some mass looks that he can learn from. 'Hey, we're having a tough day against [Patriots LB Matthew] Judon — this how I am going to play moving forward.' There are a lot of things. 'On second-and-one, I'm going to learn. If this is bad, all the way bad, I'm going to get this out of here.' There are a lot of things in that game that he's going to learn from. That's why they say experience is a great teacher because the only way you learn from it is by doing it."
Brandon Staley on Dustin Hopkins' first game as a Charger
"I felt like he did a good job yesterday putting it exactly where we wanted it to go. We want to feature off his kickoff style. I thought that was a good part of the plan yesterday, and he certainly he had a good day kicking the ball, giving us some extra points. I thought that he gave us a lift yesterday and I was proud of him. He was just a total pro yesterday — good start for him."
Brandon Staley on the trade deadline and working with general manager Tom Telesco
"We're a team, and we've been talking the entire season. You know as this deadline gets close, there's a lot happening. What we tried to do over the bye week was really talk about our team, where we are, where we can go, different contingencies with our own team or somewhere else. Getting a kicker and a punt/kick returner was certainly a couple moves in a positive direction. We're just going to see where these next few hours go. I feel like, in terms of being connected, we talk about our team all the time. I think that's something I've enjoyed between the two of us [he and General Manager Tom Telesco] — aligning our vision for how we want to build this team, together. We're just going to see where it goes. There's a lot happening right now, and we'll just see where it ends up."
Brandon Staley on Josh Palmer's confidence
"You can see if you watch the film the confidence in his route-running. He's stayed after a lot with [QB] Justin [Herbert] and I think that's earned Justin's trust a lot more and Justin trusts exactly where he's going to be within the play. I think that's big, any of these receivers will tell you that. Earning the quarterback's trust is so paramount. But I think the guy's playing physically at the receiver position. I can see and sense more confidence from him. I think he's going to continue to improve and I'm obviously excited about the catch in the end zone yesterday. That's really great to see — it's a 50/50 ball, [QB] Justin's [Herbert] giving him a chance, and when you come down with that, that creates more confidence between those two. That's going to be good for our offense."
Brandon Staley on 'learning curve' as a first-year head coach
"I think that yesterday there were some good things that we did that I continue to learn from. That's part of the job. That's part of being in competition. That's what I love about being in the NFL and that's what I love about being a head coach. I think that we've proved that we can go nose-to-nose with any of those guys that you just mentioned. Moving forward, our team is going to be well-equipped to handle whoever we play."
Justin Jones on his first game back since Week 1
"I feel good. It feels good to be a part of it and be back with the guys. One thing people don't really talk about when you're hurt is that you aren't really contributing to the team. It's hard to find your way through and lead by example. When you are out there, it's easier to be done. It felt really good being the guy out there relaying the calls and everything and being able to be out there with my teammates and making sure that the moral is high and that I bring the energy. That is one thing that I focused on when I came into the game."
Justin Jones on his mentality for the rest of the season
"We play the Eagles this week, and we're trying to win. We haven't won the last two games, so we're just trying to get that next win. I really do want to play a long time with this team. I think that we can go a long way this season. I really think that we have the guys to do it, we have the team to do it, we have the quarterback to do it and the coaches to do it. We just have to bring it all together and make sure that we bring our team ready to play on Sunday to get this win together. That's really the plan."
Justin Jones on how he felt Sunday
"That first play made me feel like I was back. In the first half, I was getting into the rhythm of things; reading my keys, the run-pass keys and stuff like that, just getting back and playing actual football in the game. That second half, I feel like I picked my play up, just being more comfortable and getting back in the rhythm with my guys and trying to be that spark that we needed on defense."
Joey Bosa on the run defense improvements
"Obviously, having [Justin Jones] back is a huge help. But, also, I think that we were just really direct with what we needed to get fixed. We did a good job on the bye week getting rested up. Got some guys back; obviously, [LB] Drue [Tranquill] and J.J. [Jones] and Nas [S Nasir Adderley] and, hopefully, [LB Kenneth] Murray [Jr.] soon. I think that we just did a good job last week in practice, really stressing things that they've been doing to us in the earlier games in the year. As a defense, we need to need to be able to stop that last drive of the game when they went down and kick that field goal. We have to make sure that we can get the ball back to our offense in a position like that."
Joey Bosa on his assessment of the pass rush against the Patriots
"I think that we did a pretty good job. I think that we need to do a better job of moving around and getting some opportunities where I'm getting out of chips. They were not going to let us beat them on the edge yesterday with the amount of shipping they did with the tight ends...Overall, I think that we rushed pretty well, but we have to do a better job of getting off of those chips and taking advantage of the few opportunities that we have."
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