 Ryan, Coach Rable mentioned his message this week, talking to the players about individually what they can do to let the spirits up of the team. What did you kind of take away from that? Have you seen that a little bit this week? Yeah, everyone's got to do their part, right? This is not the streak we want to be on, and we all understand that, and there's certain emotions that come with that, frustrations, angers, all those types of things. But everyone's got to do their part. Can't just be just a few guys. We all kind of got to buy in and do our part to, like I said, after the game, channeling that emotion into a positive way and being able to lift up the guys around you and be better this week. I said that this game, or the streak after losing that game, is going to show what this team is truly made of. In your opinion, what is this team's true character? I mean, we've shown character. Just the way the guys we have responded today so far came in with energy, with focus. We're hungry to get back on the right track, hungry to do things the way we want to do it, and we did a lot of good things in that game. We shot ourselves in the foot too many times. So got to clean those things up, build on the things we did well, and eliminate the stuff that ultimately got us beat. Outside of a sideline moment over a call or a mistake or anything, have you seen him angry much? Does he get angry much? Who are we talking about? Graves. Yeah, he gets angry. I think I've seen a lot of growth in him, and his body language demeanor has been good. So he sets the tone with how everything goes. People look to him, just being in the position that he is, like they look to me. And I think he's conscious of that. So seen a lot of growth from him in that area, and positivity when things haven't been going well, and I think it makes a big impact on how our guys respond on the sideline. So the hanger hasn't come out so much during these three games? At least not into a visible way. Obviously he's pissed, everyone's pissed, right? When things aren't going well, you put so much time and effort and energy into it, everyone gets angry, right? And I think it's how you take a second, you are angry, but then you're able to reel it back in and focus on making the corrections, as opposed to just being ticked off at everything that's happening. So it goes to everybody, not just him, not just me, but everyone on our team. There's gonna be mistakes. You're allowed to get pissed off for a second there, but gotta be able to reel it back in and channel that energy in a good way. What's it like to have... How do you keep your fundamentals together when you're hurting and you're under constant duress like you've been the last few weeks? It's tougher, right? It's tougher just the nature of the injuries and what you're allowed to, or not allowed, but what you're able to do in practice, in games, it's definitely tougher. But hopefully as we continue to heal and get better, we can keep working on those things. Have you been happy with that, with your shop, your ability to keep that together? Yeah, doing the best I can. I think it's a balancing out there of trying to do as much as you can and work the things as much as you can. But when you're banged up, your body's only able to do so much. So I think, that's not just myself, that's everybody on this team. We're all dealing with something to some degree. Anybody who's played for us. So being able to work, everyone's on a different plan, everyone has different things they're trying to work on or able to work on. Just being able to do that on a daily basis and ultimately carry it over to the games. Fair to say, Ryan. You're going to say every side of that, but on the other side, actually in the game, like you're under duress all the time, how are you managing to keep your techniques and fundamentals in order to be able to do your job when you're constantly under duress? Yeah, just focus on the task at hand, the job. I think you can't really worry too much about what's going on in front of your around you. You got to be able to try to move as best you can. Within the pocket and deliver the football in an accurate and timely fashion. Ryan, the offense has done a good job starting games, going down the field, getting touchdowns. And then something happens or seems to happen in the second half, the scoring droughts, et cetera. In looking at film, is there anything that explains it or is it just things break down here and there no matter how hard you guys have been trying to clean things up? I think it's different game by game. Looking at this pass game, we had really one possession and then we got down three scores by our first possession in the second half. So that kind of changed the whole way you had to approach that second half of that game. So definitely don't want to be in positions like that and are able to play a game our style and not be behind like that. So every game is different, but there's something to not getting behind like that. Being more efficient and not turning the ball over in the first half is going to allow us to play our game in the second half. Fair to say the first possessions of each half can set the tone or is that an overstatement just on one possession? You know, if it's good, you'd like to build on it. And if it's bad, you have to be able to take a step back and wash it away. I think that's what it comes down to. There's going to be good plays, there's going to be bad plays, whether it's within a drive or a series. Sometimes one play can stop a drive, you know what I mean? Whether it's a penalty or a negative play. Sometimes if it's an early down, you might be able to overcome it and keep going. And the same thing goes with drives. You have a drive, you get stopped, you come to the sideline, you make the adjustments and they come out ready to go on the extra. If you're able to move the ball efficiently and go down and score, then you want to build on that, keep that momentum going. So that's what the game is. It's about being able to build on momentum when you have it and when you don't have it, to being able to make enough place to get it back and go from there. When you see, you watch the film and you say, well, maybe if we had done this or maybe this is not that bad, I mean, is it maybe not as bad as it seems in terms of what's going on right now? Or is that not reality of being able to just say, this is going wrong for us and it's got to get fixed? Yeah, there's a lot of good things. You know, we looked at that tape. On the first half, we did a lot of things really well. And we were running the football. We were fishing in the pass game. We strung together drives. We were able to move the ball efficiently to get points. You know, got points on the first drive, had to hiccup in the second drive, went down and got another touchdown third drive. So we were moving the ball again before we had another turnover. So before half, we were moving the ball efficiently into two minutes. Right before half, we're inside scoring zone there and the ball came out again. So we're doing a lot of good things. Ultimately, what killed us was the turnover. So that's something that we know going into each and every game, you know, a lot like red zone, a lot like third down. Like there's critical points in the game and ball security is a critical facet of the game that we're conscious of and put a lot of emphasis of and just have to be better at. What did you say about Chick when he first got here? Maybe what's impressed you the most about him during this rookie season? He just comes to work every day and he seems to take advantage of every opportunity he gets. You know, I think that's something that jumps out is, you know, from early in the season, you know, got on the ball a few times and I said, hey, we got to get this guy the ball more. You know, it just seems like, you know, he's hard to bring down, he's physical. He catches the ball extremely well. He plays fast. He has everything you look for in receiving and pass threats. So just building on those good things he's done, you've seen his role grow as the season's gone on and, you know, just want to keep him improving in the right direction. Chargers defense statistically very middle of the pack compared to the rest of the league. What stands out to you the most about this Chargers defense? You look at the way they played last week. They played extremely well. You know, I think that's something that jumped off the tape was, you know, the disruptive in the pass game kind of really limited the run game of the Dolphins. So they're playing good right now. We're going to have to go out. We're going to have to execute, you know, whatever the case may be, whether it's running the football, you know, being efficient, being able to build on the good things we did last week in the first half, you know, and when we get opportunities in the pass game, being able to take advantage of it. Does West Coast time difference ever make a difference for you personally? I know every player kind of has their own opinion on that. You're not going to leave any earlier. It's going to be the same kind of routine? Yeah, I don't think it does, especially from the central time zone. You know, I think, you know, playing a, I guess it would be a 3-30 game, you know, it's not wild. You know, I think maybe if it was a night game out there, if it was a seven o'clock kick or something like that, which would be, you know, a lot later for us, maybe that could have an effect. But, you know, being a daytime kick, I don't think it really affects anything. You guys are always focused one game at a time and the task at hand. But when you go down a stretch like this and you lose a division game, can it be difficult to not look in the rearview mirror a little bit to where you're at in the division and the state of things? I mean, you look at what's happened and you want to get out of it. You know, I think it's, you're not blind to, you know, what has happened in the past few weeks. You look at it for what it is and want to get the ball going in the right direction. And the way to do that is to go out and play well and get a win against the charge this week. I guess the flip side of that, I mean, how much are you pointing to, hey, despite how maybe bad things have been up late, we're still in the position to win the division, do everything we wanted to do. I mean, how much are you pushing that message this week? Yeah, everything we want is still right in front of us. Obviously you want to get hot at the right time and this is the end of the year, right? This is the point where we want to start getting hot, you know, as the season finishes. So I've got to start stacking things in the positive way and moving things in the right direction. Ultimately, got to start that out by getting a win this week. What have you learned about Robert Woods this year, Ryan, and maybe how has your kind of relationship sort of grown on the field, chemistry on the field? Yeah, I'm excited to get to play with Robert. And he's a fun guy to play with. You look at how he played this last game and how he's kind of bought into what we do here. Blocking physically, I was enjoying watching him on tape just the way he was physical in his blocks. He's getting in there. He's throwing his stuff around and making an impact on things that aren't glorified, right? No one's given shout-outs in the media or whatever social media for blocking, but it's something that we put a lot of emphasis on and I respect the hot of a guy who's going to go in there and throw his nose in there and do the dirty work for us. You know, especially a veteran player like he has who's accomplished a lot in this league and he has a good feel for what we're doing. He's making plays for us in the past game and that's something that jumped out for me last week was a veteran guy like him going in there and throwing it around. He's taking a flyer here. When you were coming out of high school in Texas, did you ever visit Texas Tech or did you ever have any reason to cross pass with Mike Leach? I know you haven't. I think I've read somewhere you were Texas Tech fan growing up. I mean, did you ever buy here from the heart? Did you ever meet him? What are your thoughts on him? Yeah, I met him briefly. I grew up a Texas Tech fan. Both my parents graduated from Texas Tech, grew up going to their games, several games a year and I was 90 miles up the road. So grew up going to Texas Tech games. I wanted to get recruited by Tech but it wasn't the cards. You know, I was a wingtea guy as offense. We were wingtea my last couple of years and obviously, you know, Leach was a spread it out and air it out kind of guy. But, you know, that offer never came but I went up there for a camp and I was able to talk with him for just briefly but he accomplished a lot, right? You look at a guy who coached the year for his conference multiple times over the courses of his career, successful pretty much everywhere he went. So a guy who did it a different way than the norm, I would say, you know, just his mannerisms and the way he went about things was a little bit different than the norm but effective and had success doing it. Mike, your team has done a good job of starting games, going down, getting touchdowns. What has to start happening to get that to translate into more scoring in the second half after you come out of the locker room? Well, all the fundamentals that we talk about, I think that, you know, understanding that we're just gonna have to make sure that we get into drives, you know, and just unfortunately recently the case has been just some self-inflicted wounds and, you know, I thought we answered, again, we've been through this, I thought we answered well last week, unfortunate, you know, that we weren't able to answer when our defense needed us. You know, going back to the fundamentals, taking care of the football, you know, really just striving to keep this rhythm and the flow that's been there, you know, at times. And again, not having this roller coaster of having a good drive or then doing something, you know, that, you know, affects that and then really letting it affect the rest of the game. You know, they're gonna make some plays, they're gonna get some stops, you know, we have to go right back out whenever we get the ball and get back and find that rhythm. How does Echler's ability to catch passes sideline to sideline stress your defense? It's just, you know, they do a lot with him and he's just an ultimate outlet. It seems like when he needs to sit down in the zone, he's sitting down, when he needs to continue to run, he continues to stay on the move. The quarterback knows where he is. You know, they have a lot that's designed for him, but they're also a lot that is just, you know, the relief and the outlet and the check down. And, you know, he does a fantastic job with the plays that are designed for him, as well as the ones that, you know, get to him after the quarterbacks progressed. How much of their size and strength if they receive a position, even tied in challenge guys in the second game? Well, I think they have some guys with different skill sets and certainly they do have a stature. You know, I think, obviously, Williams, Keenan Allen, you know, Palmer, Carter's, you know, a guy that can kind of, you know, play a lot of different roles. He's not just a gadget guy, a guy that runs, you know, multitude of routes. It seems like, you know, Everett's been factoring and really gaining a lot of confidence. Getting back to some of those self-inflicted wounds, false starts. Obviously, there's different ones, but false starts with the offensive line. What are you guys doing to get better in that department and just get that offensive line up for part? Trying to tell Nick to wait for the ball to snap. I mean, I think Nick's leading the league. So, focusing, you know, again, it's not always... And it's not just Nick. I just know that he's got the majority of them, I think. You know, sometimes in our zest to get them, we get ourselves, we've been okay, I would say, trying to handle the road environment, which is crazy. You know, when we're on a silent, I think we're locked in. And so sometimes when Ryan has a voice inflection or things happen, you know, just have to make sure that we're focused in and, you know, we continue to practice those things. We work on a cadence when we condition, when we run, you know, CS do that again today. We echo the call, ask them to do all that, reminders if the, you know, sometimes the cadence changes at the line of scrimmage. We ask those guys from inside out to echo that. You know, just a lot of different things. You've been a big proponent of attention to detail in terms of making sure that guys know exactly what to do. Has there been any drop-off in that in recent weeks as you've gone through this little rough patch? I mean, I think you look at all those things and whether that's tied into performance, you know, different parts. I mean, I don't think we've had, you know, busts. I don't think there have been a lot of egregious busts, but I do think that the details can always improve. I, we try to ask them to work through those things at each and every position, what they may be. I think they can always be better. I think understanding what they're in, what we're in, and trying to improve that way and how your job may change based on the look that they give us or the coverage that they're in or the formation that they're in offensively. West, since you've been here, do you change anything during the week as far as schedules or travel or anything like that? Or do you just kind of do your best to ignore it? Try to just show up and play well, you know, coach well. I mean, we went out early, I think, in Seattle. We don't think we'll do that now. It's a little longer flight to Seattle. We'll try to leave normal time, try to get in, you know, what would be 4.30 or 5. I think try to stay consistent to whatever time zone that we're on, get some rest and get up and, you know, treat it like a 3.25 game. That bother you as a player at all? Or did you find you had to adjust as a player when you went out? I mean, we had the double week one time where we stayed out there because we had two games out there back to back. But other than that, I don't really recall having to be too much of an issue. You know, he's watching daily's teams this year. He's shown propensity to be kind of a go for it guy. I think in some fourth down situations, does that change how you prepare? Well, I think we always have to be kind of aware, especially, you know, you get around the 50 yard line or, you know, you're inside the five, you know, they had Miami third and 21, whatever it was, third and goal from the 21 and they got it down to the one yard line on a screen, you know, they went for it. Very similar situation to us. They scored right before half and, you know, give them a lot of credit for executing that situation and getting down there and going forward and scoring. So, you know, when you get past the 50 and you're in that fringe field goal range, you know, there's propensity that we have to be ready to defend, you know, two downs and we've had other, you know, teams with that philosophy as well. That seems to be the kind of the trend. What's the trail and status in the protocol? Still in protocol. I don't, there's only, there's only two, yeah, it's either in or you're out. You know, I mean, I can't really comment on, you know, where he's at other than still in. Is he in the right practice? No, there's just still the in the protocol or out of protocol. The same situation. Still in protocol. What's the key for a guy to come up in reserve to be able to kind of hit the ground running and be successful and have help, and what you're hoping maybe that kind of game could do that for you this week? Well, I think that that starts with one, their effort, you know, the individual player's effort to get back, to work hard, to be engaged in the rehab, to strain through that process. And then once we feel like he gets close, we enter them back into meetings. They're on a different schedule when they're not in that meetings, when they're, you know, still three weeks away or four weeks away. Then they start, you know, then the work that they do with Frank and Brian Bell, you know, I think B Bell does a fantastic job with that return to play before they get onto the practice field. He tries to meet and understand what he's gonna have to do, what that player's gonna have to do. He meets with our coaches about drills that they may have to do once they're back in movements. So then they work there. And then we, you know, when the window opens up, then we make a decision and they start to practice. So I think conditioning is a large part of it as well. We talked about that last week with Racy and Josh. Both those players did really well on their return. So, you know, we'll see where Zach is. With a limit on IR recalls and Ola's ultimate fate, is that one that maybe you'd like to have back? You mentioned wanting to roll into the playoffs, you know, on a high note. What is it about this group of guys that you feel, you know, gives you the confidence that you guys could do that? Well, I just enjoy the way they come to work. You know, and we're all disappointed Monday. The volume again around the building on Tuesday that guys came into work and, you know, lift or get treatment, check in with their coaches, whatever they had to do or wanted to do. And then I think the way that we started Wednesday and started today, you know, start the process over. And, you know, that's twofold. That goes for me, the coaches, you know, the players, those long days after you lose and you got to try to get back going. And I think the biggest thing for me is when the players are here. Remember, his arm, his arm strength, is he a guy that when he extends the place to that he'll try to put a ball in places maybe that a lot of other guys wouldn't try? And how do you have to guard against that? I mean, I don't really, you know, I mean, I think the arm talent is fantastic. I think the ability to move and extend plays. You know, I saw a stat where he, I think has had the most yardage outside the pocket the other night than any quarterback in the league. I think he had 150 yards outside the pocket, whether that's design plays for him to get out there or he's getting out there himself on third down, looking to throw but can run, can, you know, put it anywhere. So it puts a lot of stress on you as guys start to uncover whether that's out in the field or in the red zone. Like your coaches say that it's easier to teach lessons when you're winning. When you're losing, do you find yourself being more positive, I guess, to try to get a turn around? Well, I mean, I think that we all understand, you know, I mean, this is professional football and I think you have to be consistent. You know, I try to coach the action and not the result. I really do, whether we win or we lose, I try to coach things that come up in the game that have to be improved. Things that I recognize that we did well. You know, and I think by what I mean is, you know, if you give up, contain or something and you make a play, you still have to recognize, hey, you know, the next time that's gonna be a huge, huge gain. At that quarterback that can scramble is gonna be out of there. There's an element to, yeah, making a play, but you know, sometimes just because the play was favorable, you may have not necessarily done your job. And so I try to use those examples to them and say, you know, whether we win or lose, there's gonna be things that we're gonna have to have to improve. And then the things that we have to eliminate, such as the turnovers or the poor situational football at the end of the half, you know, not affecting the quarterback, things that we know will get us beat. Potential return, me and you guys, especially given the experience at that position there. Well, you know, Zach's played a lot of football and he's done some good things for us and we'll just try to get him back and see how he does and progress us through the week into practice. Talked about the team being at a crossroads last week and also the team deciding to finish out the season, what team they wanna be, how they wanna finish a similar message this week from you to the team or something different as you go down. Well, I mean, I think the message this week is obviously, you know, we talked about, you know, what we can do individually to then lift the spirits of the team and the guys around us and try to focus on our demeanor, our attitude, how we approach each and every meeting, the reps, the practice reps, the individual period and, you know, in turn hoping, you know, that that will help the entire group. So that's where our focus is, you know, and just try to, you know, prepare to win a game of what we think is important this week. Coach, do you have any updates with Danico and just the progress with him? You know, he may do some stuff today. He may be out there in a limited basis today. So hopefully we'll see how, you know, he's feeling.