Monday marked the Bolts' return to Hoag Performance Center after their 28-6 Thanksgiving win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Head Coach Anthony Lynn spoke with the media and shared his thoughts on the kicker position, Keenan Allen's performance as of late, the Week 13 match against the Cleveland Browns and more:
Injury Updates & Kicker Tryouts
After leaving Thursday's game with knee and back injuries respectively, the statuses of Mike Williams and Nick Novak for Week 13 are in question. Lynn said Williams is considered day-to-day, but, an ACL injury has been ruled out. As for Novak, he is also day-to-day, and both will be evaluated at the end of the week. Coach Lynn did say the team will likely work out three to four kickers this week in the event that Novak can't go against the Browns:
"We're bringing in some kickers (Tuesday). We'll work some people out and if Nick is better at the end of the week, then we'll probably go with Nick. If he's not, we have to look at other options…. Having two kickers on the roster, I would not count that out. We need an insurance policy. What happened last week, I don't want that to happen again."
Return of KA13
While Keenan Allen has played in each game this season, he seemingly has returned to form over the past two weeks. During Weeks 11 and 12, Allen put up 331 yards and three touchdowns and is worthy of a Pro Bowl honor. His 172 yards against the Cowboys were a single game career-high. Getting KA13 involved has been of the utmost importance and as Lynn attested, his presence fuels the offense's production:
*"We moved the sticks. Keenan's a very reliable receiver... He's healthy, he's playing well, and our offense gets into a rhythm when we can get Keenan going…. When you can throw high-completion passes and the guy can run after catch, that's huge." *
Overlooking Cleveland? Not so Much.
The Cleveland Browns may be the only winless team left in the league; however that doesn't mean the Chargers are looking past them. After all, the Browns inked their only win of 2016 against the Chargers. Although he wasn't with the team a season ago, Lynn said he's pretty sure the Bolts remember losing to Cleveland and don't want to go through that again:
"In this league, you can get beat any given Sunday. Especially, this team. (They) won one game last year and they beat us. I would hate to say this is a pitfall game for us or a trap game for us because it really shouldn't be. We've got all the motivation in the world to go out and play mainly because they're next on the schedule."
"Hunters, Not the Hunted"
Fresh off a two-game win-streak and one game back in the division, the Chargers are seemingly getting hot at the right time. However, Lynn isn't looking further than this week's match against Cleveland. After all, there are still five games to be played and although they're playing at a high level, he doesn't feel his team has reached their peak potential. But, he's pleased with how they've responded since starting 0-4, and admitted he never had a doubt they'd be in the position they're currently in:
"We're still fighting. Right now, we're not even 'bowl eligible.' We're trying to get to that next win. And that's the way we still have to look at it. We're still the hunters, we're not the hunted. I know we're a game out in our division, but we have some catching up to do…. This is the position I saw ourselves in all along. Even when we were 0-4, no one abandoned ship. Everyone knew what their responsibilities were and how we were going to get there. Guys just stayed the course. Everybody; coaching staff as well. We grew (and) hopefully we can learn from our mistakes."
