HEAD COACH JOHN FOX

On what he said at halftime
“There were no mystery words of wisdom at halftime. I think it was just guys knew how poorly we played in the first half and made a decision to play better in the second half, and they did.”

On if he’s been a part of a game like this
“Yeah, been a part of a few of them. But, I’m not sure, I’d have to look back. That was as good of a second half of football as I’ve been a part of.”

On going into the bye on a win
“We can only control the next one and this was the one that was real big for us because it was against a division opponent. You’re doing everything you can to win your division, so anytime you go against a division opponent, that’s key. They were a game ahead of us and we made up a little ground at this point.”

On the mindset at halftime
“I was talking with somebody going into the locker room at halftime and when you looked at it, they had about 150 yards of total offense and it was 24-0. We presented that to the football team. Defensively, we thought we could hang in there, we just couldn’t give them short fields and turn the ball over. On top of it, now it can be our turn to create turnovers as well. We stepped it up and I think we grew a little bit.”

On the Carter fumble recovery touchdown
“I think what really kind of started us off was to be able to go down the field to start the third quarter. I thought Peyton and the offense did an outstanding job and Mike McCoy and his offensive staff. Even in the first half when we were down 10 with the two early miscues in the kicking game, I still felt confident that we could level the playing field as we went. It was just a great effort on our guys’ part to keep fighting and we’ve had some practice at that.”

QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING

On whether the team’s previous comeback efforts helped tonight
“I think offensively, it certainly did. I think guys understand from the past few weeks that we can score quickly. We are able to come back, it’s just a matter of how far we can come back, how big of a hole are we in. Disappointing start – I thought we really had a good plan and were really determined to get off to a better start on the road in the division. We just had some things that we didn’t expect to go our way and just had a hard time overcoming them in the first half. I thought the second half, everybody was accountable and was professional. We got back to the plan. We had 30 minutes and thought it was important to get off to a good start with that first drive. I thought that was really key, putting that drive together and hitting DT on that touchdown. That sure set the tempo for the second half.”

On whether he’s ever had two halves more different
“Probably not. It really was a tale of two halves. Just the turnovers and a couple special teams turnovers – those were frustrating. I know for the defense, they had 17 points, all off turnovers essentially. The defense, I think, had confidence as well. Hey, if we could stop putting the defense in a hole, the defense is capable of getting some stops and getting some turnovers themselves. It was nice to finally take the lead on the road and give our defense a chance to play with a lead where Von and Elvis could pin their ears back and our secondary could make some plays on the ball.”

On the turning point
“It was a pivotal game. It wasn’t a must-win game, because must-win games early in the season, if you don’t win it, that doesn’t mean the season is over. But, it was pivotal. It’s always nice to win a game going into the bye, on the road, in the division. We feel fortunate to be tied for first place in our division at 3-3. It is going to be a competitive division down the stretch. There are some things we need to get better at. We need to use this bye week to improve and find a way to play a 60-minute lead.”

On the Tony Carter fumble return touchdown sparking the comeback
“That was a huge play. I’ve been a part of some comebacks – you have to have all three phases contribute. Everybody kind of has to do their part. You have to have a tipped ball or a bounce kind of go your way. I think it was in that same series when the ball was on the ground and somebody had a chance to pick it up and San Diego recovered. We had the big play to Decker and that guy made a great tackle – I mean the piece of grass made the tackle (laughing). When those things happen, you kind of wonder, ‘Hey, golly, is it meant to be? Or is that the play we have to have in order to help this comeback.’ It seemed like that was the first one that we had that really was a big swing, ‘Hey, OK, maybe some things are going to go our way, we’re going to get some tipped balls for turnovers, some diving catches like Stokley made.’ You have to have those, I think, to complete the comeback.”

On being able to build off a comeback win
“You like to see your hard work kind of pay off with a win. It’s not easy when you work hard and work hard and keep coming close. It’s like Coach Fox said, ‘We don’t get paid to work hard, we get paid to win.’ I thought it was important to get a win on the road. I know the road thing has been an issue here. What you hope is that if you get in a situation like this again, ‘Hey, we were here a couple weeks ago, we were on the road. We can do this.’ Just imagine what we can do if we don’t put ourselves in a hole in the first half. Some things we have to improve on, but I definitely agree that you can build off of this.”

LINEBACKER VON MILLER

On his injuries
“I just got a little pull in my calf and at the end of the third quarter I got a hip pointer, but it’s great when you’re hurt and you can play through it and still have some success and see a team win like this.”

On what got said at halftime
“It wasn’t a message. We’re not a team that gives big speeches or anything like that, we just go out there and play. We’ve been in similar situations before. The outcome wasn’t the same, but we still had confidence in those games. We still knew what type of team we were. Thankfully we were able to make some plays and come out with a win in this game.”

On CB Chris Harris’ pick six
“It was great. It wasn’t a suprise to me, I see Chris make plays like that in practice all the time. It was a good team effort, everybody kept playing. Before, we came up short in these type of games. But everybody just kept playing and we were able to pull it off in the end.”

On Tony Carter
“We had a great team effort today. Everybody made plays. Elvis Dumervil had two sacks, two strip fumbles that really played a part in the outcome of this game. Tony played great. Chris played incredible today and we were able to come out with a win.”

CORNERBACK CHRIS HARRIS

On the team win
“We’re going to fight every snap and compete every snap. We’ve been getting interceptions all week, we’re finally happy they came through in a game.”

On interceptions in practice
“Champ got a whole bunch this week, I got a whole bunch, Tony got some.”

On the Chargers testing him early
“I knew coming out they were going to try to test me. That’s just how it is when you’re fresh out there at corner. I just knew that if I played solid, don’t let anything over my head, no big, explosive plays, that we were going to do a good job on defense.”

On whether this was the best defensive effort of the year
“I would say yes, so far. To be able to come back and force a lot of turnovers like that, I would say it is. But we’ve got to continue to play like how we played today.”

On whether he’s had a better game in his career
“I would say no. I’ve had games with interceptions, but to have two in a road game against a rival, that’s very big.”

WIDE RECEIVER BRANDON STOKLEY

On the if this was the best game he’s been in
“A regular-season game, I would say this is the best. … It was awesome.”

On a happy plane ride home
“Those plane rides have been kind of boring, so this will be a whole lot more fun. We won’t sit there and be quiet, that’s for sure.”

On what was said at halftime
“Coach Fox just said believe. Believe we can come back. … I think everybody was a little embarrassed about that first half.”

On being tied for first place in the AFC West
“It feels really good. We’d like to have a couple more wins, but to come in San Diego and be 3-3 right now heading into the bye.

CORNERBACK CHAMP BAILEY

On no one catching Tony Carter on the fumble return
“Absolutely. He’s the fastest guy in this building.”

On the young cornerbacks
“I say it all the time – we’re only going to be as good as our young guys make us. When we have young players play like that, that’s what really makes teams really good. You’ve got veterans that know what they’re doing, but you don’t know about the young guys. But when they play the way we know that they can play, and they start believing in themselves, the sky’s the limit.”

On frustration at halftime
“If you were in this locker room, you wouldn’t think that we were down 24-0. You could just see the confidence going through the locker room. That’s really what it’s all about. You can never stop fighting.”

On the win
“I’ve been a part of some big wins, but this is right up there. This is a good statement setter for us. What better place to do it than here in San Diego?”

On the game being big
“It’s a division opponent, playing on Monday night, it’s always going to be emotional.”

WIDE RECEIVER ERIC DECKER

On coming back
“We’ve been through a lot this season as far as starting slow and we did today with the turnovers, not scoring any points in the first half, my sniper shot, that should’ve been a score. Again, it really shows the resiliency. We keep fighting. The plays are there, the opportunities are there, and we did that on both sides of the ball today to give ourselves a chance to win.”

On falling on the deep pass
“One of the more embarrassing moments of my life. I’m sure I’ll hear about it for the next couple weeks. I tripped myself. I was stepping, tripped on my foot and fell. That’s all I can say.”

On whether that play is forgotten with a win
“I hope so.”

On knowing they could come back from other games
“We definitely knew we could do it. We always say that the only person stopping us is ourselves. We’ve done that multiple times this year. The fact is when all 11 guys are playing great, when D Thomas, my guy, is making plays, we can be a great offense. But it’s up to us as far as the choices we make. We’ve got o makes sure that we stay consistent. That’s something we’re working on. We’re looking to find an identity as being a consistent team that can play 60 minutes like we did in the second half.”

On the plane ride home
“The fact is we got the W. Now we’ve got to build off that. Obviously enjoy this plane trip but make sure we find out what we need to do better.”

Tags: Quotables, San Diego Chargers, Week 6

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