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SAN DIEGO – As broad as his smile was as he approached the podium, Antoine Cason likely had envisioned the moment in some form.

It’s games like Cason’s against Jacksonville that spawned the cliché “breakout performance.” Making his sixth career start at cornerback, the third-year Cason nabbed two interceptions, four passes defensed and stripped receiver Mike Sims-Walker for one of six Jaguars turnovers.

As he got his bearings, blinking in the production lights of several news cameras Monday, someone asked if he’d ever been to the media center at Chargers Park.

“Once, but it wasn’t for me,” Cason said in a tone that suggested he enjoyed playing well enough to merit an invite to a press conference setting that included Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates.

Everyone laughed.

They didn’t when he said one of his goals is to make it to the Pro Bowl.

“I feel I can do that,” Cason said.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback has voiced confidence in himself since it became apparent he’d start opposite Quentin Jammer entering the season for the first time in his career. The former first-round draft pick, it turns out, was willing himself to believe what he and his teammates told reporters, that he could handle the vacated position and handle it well.

“I’ve learned how to make myself believe things that I know I’m capable of,” Cason said. “I think I have a lot (of confidence) and I don’t want anyone to mistake it for being cocky, but if they do then that’s fine because … it’s a really good feeling for me to know how much confidence I have in myself.”

Cason admittedly did not have the best football season of his life in ’09. He made two interceptions in 16 games, recorded one pass defensed and forced a fumble. He surpassed those numbers in the first half alone Sunday.

“I’ve worked 10 years to be in this spot so I wasn’t going to let six months determine how I was going to play the rest of my career. (Last year) was a learning experience,” Cason said. “I’m not going to be in that place again. That’s what I tell myself.”

Turns out he tells himself a lot. Self-talk, as he calls it, is his way of positive mental reinforcement. He envisions making plays before every game.

“It’s just like a movie. If you see it over and over again, you’re going to know every word of it,” Cason said. “Everyone has a movie that they know every line to without even watching it. They know what’s coming. That’s what I do with myself on the football field (by imagining) different plays.”

Asked about the approach, which seems like something out of a sports psychologist’s book, he attributed most of his mindset to more than a dozen family members that have played Division I football. He’s not too proud to collect advice from multiple perspectives and glean something from all of them.

Told of Cason’s self-talk, Gates shook his head and chuckled.

“You have to have your own motivation and your own sense of humor to get going in this league. I have a different vibe. I listen to a lot of crazy music to get me going because I’m a reserved kind of person. Laid back if you will,” Gates said.

“Whatever works and whatever got him to play the way he was playing last week, he can keep doing it.”