Bolts already focused on Raiders

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Monday, Dec 01, 2008
By Casey Pearce, Chargers.com

Mondays in the NFL regularly bring out the cliché “we’ll put this one behind us and look forward,” but the phrase carried more weight at Chargers Park a day after Sunday’s loss to the Falcons.

While players can often spend Monday reflecting on the previous week’s game before enjoying their day off Tuesday, this week is different for the Bolts. They’ll have just three days between games this week as they host the Raiders Thursday night at Qualcomm Stadium.

“I think it is a positive that we play Thursday,” Rivers said. “We don’t have long to sulk over the loss (Sunday). We’ve got to get ready and go play Thursday night.”

Players had Monday morning off before reporting for an afternoon meeting. That was followed by a light, half-speed practice. The Chargers will have their only full-speed practice of the week on Tuesday, a day the coaches usually spend game planning. Head Coach Norv Turner and his staff had to work ahead to be ready for the short week.

“Obviously as coaches we did a lot of work on Oakland over the weekend before our game,” said Turner, who prepared for three Thursday Thanksgiving Day games as offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys in the early 1990’s. “You just have to condense everything and you have to rely on the familiarity of having played this team already.”

Rivers will try to compensate for the shortened schedule of physical preparation with some extra studying this week.

“I think one thing you’re not going to get is the reps that you’re used to getting throughout the week,” Rivers said. “You get one really good day of practice tomorrow where you can really go. It’s going to be key mentally to cram in a bunch of studying into a short week these next couple days and mentally probably be able to run some plays you didn’t get to rep during the week.”

Rivers admitted Monday that the Bolts’ 4-8 season has been tough emotionally, but promised he and his teammates are looking forward to Thursday night’s game and will be prepared to play as the Chargers pursue their 11^th-consecutive win over Oakland.

“When you’re playing the Raiders, a team that a lot of guys here haven’t lost to, it’s a division game, it is a rivalry,” Rivers said. “It’s Thursday night and a national audience. If you can’t get excited about that, I don’t care what the situation, what the record is, something is wrong.”

Turner said Monday that he was disappointed in certain areas of his team’s performance Sunday against the Falcons, but is pleased with his club’s effort and preparation.

“I watched the tape and there are certainly a lot of areas that we need to play better but there’s no lack of effort and you look at the guys who have played over a long period of time and they’re playing,” Turner said. “We had a number of guys this last week defensively in Jamal Williams, Cooper, Shaun Phillips playing at a high level and competing and to me that’s the great leadership of going out and putting it on the line and laying it on the line and continue to play at that level.”

A year after an appearance in the AFC Championship Game, Turner believes his players still view themselves as a strong football team that simply needs to put together a complete game.

“You go out and win one and the whole outlook changes and that’s what we are starting to prepare to do today in a short week and coming off a tough loss,” Turner said. “It will be a challenge.”

Mike Nowak, Chargers.com

With a Thursday night contest looming against the Raiders, Jamal Williams and the Chargers had little time to reflect on Sunday’s loss to the Falcons.

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