WEEK 4 — PODIUM AVAILABILITY
Monday, September 23, 2019 | Hoag Performance Center | Costa Mesa, Calif.
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS HEAD COACH ANTHONY LYNN
On TE Virgil Green:
"We're not sure yet. He left the game with a groin [injury]. I'm sure he'll be day-to-day for right now."
On if Green's absence affected the rushing attack in the second half:
"No, not really. I think it was us getting behind the sticks. We come out for our first drive of the second half and I think we were second-and-16 after the first run because we missed a block. I think getting behind the sticks kind of contributed to that a lot."
On the offensive line:
"I saw four sacks that you can credit to the line. There wasn't the fifth one, that was on something else. They came in the second half. The protection could have been better in some cases. Overall, whenever we helped those guys, chipped and got down the field with the ball, I thought it looked good. There were a couple of times that we left guys on an island against [Texans DE J.J.] Watt. Hell, that happens to a lot of tackles in this league. There's definitely room for improvement.
"We'll have the same starting five, but I can't say that you won't see [G] Forrest [Lamp] in there a little bit more."
On S Roderic Teamer:
"You know, he looked like a rookie in his first start — that's what he looked like. We have a lot of confidence in Roderic. I know he's going to get better. He'll be okay."
On potentially making an in-game switch at safety:
"We were prepared to do that. [S] Rayshawn [Jenkins] had worked some at strong, [S Nasir] Nas [Adderley] had worked some at free. We just didn't feel like that we needed to make that switch in-game. Rayshawn, he's a heck of a free safety right now. I think that's what this is all about. You have a guy that's playing at an elite level at one position, do you want to make two moves? I think, right now, we're looking at Roderic [Teamer] being our strong safety. Any time we feel like he's not that guy, we have the flexibility to move it. It could be this week, you never know."
On if S Nasir Adderley could play strong safety:
"That's a little different. Nas hasn't played strong safety since he has been on campus. That would be a big learning curve for him."
On Adderley:
"I like him, no doubt. We're definitely going to work to get him on the field. We're definitely going to do that. I'm just not sure how yet.
"He could possibly go in there in the dime package. Right now, [S] Jaylen [Watkins] is in that spot. Jaylen is a very valuable player because you can line him up anywhere in the secondary. He's a really good insurance policy. Nas will work his way in there. With his skillset and the way he's working right now, I have no doubt that he will work his way in there."
On the pass rush:
"It's hard. That's what we have to get used to. We want to figure out different ways to affect the quarterback like tipping balls and getting their hands up. When people go quick passing game and use six to block four, it's going to be hard to get to the quarterback. When we got to him, we didn't get him on the ground. That was the problem, that we didn't get this guy on the ground yesterday at all.
"We're seeing a lot of max protect and you're seeing the ball come out quickly. I don't blame them. Like I said, there are other ways to affect the quarterback than just pass rush."
On K Michael Badgley:
"He was just still sore. He wasn't right. You just don't want to put him in there when he's not in the right frame of mind. He kicked last week and he kicked well, but he just wasn't himself yet. We decided to hold him out for another week and see where he is this week.
On WR Keenan Allen:
"We're going to need everyone. I mean, we're 1-2 right now. We need everybody in that receivers group to step up and make plays, not just Keenan. As they step up, we will spread the ball around."
On WR Travis Benjamin:
"Travis is our fastest receiver. He can blow the top off the coverage and do a lot of good things, but he is a smaller guy. You can only use him in so many ways. We probably have to figure out ways to get him the ball more. The times that we have targeted him, I need to see a little more consistency.
"They all drop one every now and then. I mean, you look at last week on the very first play, Keenan [Allen] dropped it. We didn't stop going to him though, did we? We're not going to stop going to Travis. He dropped one in the game the other day, but we'll target him again."
On WR Mike Williams:
"Mike is showing a lot of toughness right now. Mike is really playing with his injury. He's fighting through it. I think that's part of learning how to be a professional, is playing with pain and producing with that pain. Mike is doing that right now."
On injuries:
"You know, not really. We talked about Virgil Green, I believe in this game.
"Travis has a little bit of a quad, yeah. We'll wait and see. Just not sure yet."
On defensive communication with new players:
"It's hard, but it's doable. We have to get it done. When you have a young guy in there like [Roderic] Teamer, he was out of position a couple of times yesterday. Even with the new linebackers, we're still working with that linebacker rotation with Denzel [Perryman] in and Kyzir [White] out, and Thomas Davis [Sr.] is new in the defense. The communication is important right now on defense."
On LB Denzel Perryman:
"[I saw] a little rust as far as his angles because of the speed of the game, but I love him downhill. We've always been a better run defense when Denzel is in the game. He's a downhill thumper."
On LB Kyzir White:
"That was Denzel's first game back, so we really had to monitor his reps because when he started to get tired, you had Kyzir in and you may get Kyzir in more passing situations as well."
On Texans QB Deshaun Watson:
"I thought he played well. That's what he's been doing. He's an outstanding young quarterback. I thought he played well."
On the second half:
"We have to finish. We talked about that a little bit this morning. There are some things, as a coaching staff, that we have to do to help our players finish. We have to finish football games. We're getting up by two scores and guys are coming back, that same urgency or whatever is just not there right now. There are mistakes. We've had three touchdowns in the last two weeks called back on penalties. We've had an interception called back at mid-field. We've had a contact fumble called back when the offense would have had the ball on the 20, so we have to get those breaks as well, but stop hurting ourselves."
On second half turnovers:
"I just think that turnovers are a part of the game. We want to limit those turnovers as much as possible. We have to make better decisions and finish games."
On G Forrest Lamp:
"Right now, he's going in as a big tight end. We've used him a lot there right now. He can go in — I'm not going to say where, but he can go in anywhere. He has played all across the line except for center."
