SHANE STEICHEN: I thought last week's game a couple days ago was good. We came out, set the tone early running the football, the line of scrimmage offensive backs.
Q. Did you go into the game thinking you were going to run that much or --
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, I think we wanted to establish the run game. I think anytime you go into a game you have a vision of what you want it to look like. Sometimes that vision doesn't go out that way. Well it did.
When things are working you keep sticking with it. And I've been in games last year as a coordinator I went into a game saying, shoot, we'll the heck out of it. And early in the first quarter we started throwing it a little bit and the ball wasn't hitting the ground. We ended up throwing it for 45 times and throwing for over 350 yards. Things like that happen. If things are working you stay with it.
Q. Running backs get a bunch of the acclaim for it, but you mentioned the O line. What about this O line allows them to be able to dictate that?
SHANE STEICHEN: I think they've played together for a while, our offensive line, and they've got a great nucleus. Coach Stout and Roy do a great job with those guys. And Kelce, his leadership and ability, he's played in the league a long time and he holds the group accountable. Anytime you hold a group accountable within a position like he does, you'll have success.
Q. You've been asked about the running game. (Indiscernible) come during weeks when the ball hit the ground quite a bit. What took you guys so long to establish the run game?
SHANE STEICHEN: I don't know it's especially that. Sometimes, like you said, each week is different. You go in with a vision of what you want it to look like. And sometimes you're like, oh, shoot we'll throw it a little bit. That game we ran it, ran it good, so we stayed with it, bottom line.
Q. What makes Boston and Jordan so effective short yardage and down by the goal line?
SHANE STEICHEN: They did a great job at just running down hill. They saw the holes and hit it. Offensive line did a great job creating those holes. But they had great vision and just pounded it in there.
Obviously we were short one guy a few times down there but the offensive line just mauled off the ball and we got it in there, which was good.
Q. What about your time at the Chargers with Nick that made him think, when he became the head coach, Shane will be the guy I go to for my offensive coordinator?
SHANE STEICHEN: We worked well together. We worked well in San Diego. We thought very similar about football. That bond carried over the years. Obviously he went to Indy and we kept in contact. We always talked football throughout those years. Obviously now we're here together.
Q. What do you think, not a lot went wrong Sunday? Avonte had the drop early. He had a drop in Las Vegas. Nick talked about it. What do you see there, and how do you get him going back in the right direction?
SHANE STEICHEN: I think like Nick said the other day, you don't want to harp on drops. Those things happen. Things in football happen. You get some drops. You just keep working through it and you correct it and you get the techniques right. We're not worried about drops. Avonte is heck of a football player.
Q. What unique insight can you offer on Justin Herbert?
SHANE STEICHEN: Justin Herbert, heck of a football player, bottom line. Big, huge arm. He can stand in the pocket. That's one of the biggest things I learned from being around him, from a rookie last year, he's able to stand in there when the blitz is coming and he can take hits, stand there deliver the throws. He's smart and intelligent. He gets the balls in his hands.
You'll see on tape a lot of times hitting the back foot, boom gets the ball to the check down quickly. He has accelerated vision. Can do it all. Heck of a football player.
Q. How early in camp or OTAs last year did you see that talent?
SHANE STEICHEN: You saw the physical ability, without a doubt, him throwing. You always want to know what it's going to look like when he gets in a game.
And obviously each week he would do something each week that was like holy crap, that was pretty impressive. And he continued to do that week in, week out. And he's been playing good football again this year.
Q. How have you helped as a resource to Gannon and the defensive staff this week?
SHANE STEICHEN: They've asked me a few questions about Justin and the rest of those guys. They're a good football team. They've got a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and Cook, the tight end and Austin Ekeler. So there's a lot of weapons with those guys. I've been giving my insight on those guys' ability and obviously Justin Herbert as well.
Q. Are there any lessons you too can from coaching a young player in Justin last year to coaching a different young player?
SHANE STEICHEN: Absolutely. I think it was good. I was around, like you said, Philip Rivers for so many years, a veteran guy that has seen pretty much everything. Going from that to a rookie, seeing how those guys see the game. It has definitely helped me being with Justin last year and then being with Jalen this year. It's been really good.
Q. What are some of those things?
SHANE STEICHEN: I think from a veteran standpoint, obviously you see so much, right? And those guys can handle so much. As a rookie, it's like what can this guy handle going into a game? How many kills can we have on the game plan? How many adjustments can we have throughout the game? So I think that's been good. That stuff.
Q. What was it about Rivers that made your guys relationship, Nick is in that department a lot too, made it so foundational to how you guys look at that position, look at offenses?
SHANE STEICHEN: He was basically a coach. Philip Rivers was a coach. When you have those conversations in the quarterback room day in, day out on the field, he sees the game so well. When you're talking to him, he had like a picture memory.
So there would be conversations where it would be like, hey, back in 2012, remember the game, yeah, third down on the -- remember the guy cut the cross -- there were all those conversations and it made it so easy to communicate with him. So it was good.
Q. Going back to the Raiders game, came out on opening drive, did a lot under center. Theoretically if that game had been different, you had more possessions in the first two or three quarters, would that have looked like what we saw against the Lions?
SHANE STEICHEN: Yeah, possibly. Like I said, it's game by game. I think the way the game's flowing and how it's going is dictating how the game's going to get called.
Q. When you talk about Philip, because as Jeff said, Nick mentions him a lot as well, how does that help you as a coach staff somebody -- it's great to have a quarterback that knows everything that's like a coach. But you don't always have that. You have a rookie last year, very young quarterback. Can that hinder in some ways when you have a guy like?
SHANE STEICHEN: I think you learn from those experiences. You've got a veteran guy that's seen everything and you can take what you've learned even from those guys. Those veteran quarterbacks that have played in the league so long and know so much. Even as a coach you learn from those guys like, hey, I ran this route versus this versus this. That makes sense. Those conversations take place and then it does, it carries over into a young quarterback when you see those things and you have those same conversations with him. So it's good.
Q. On a personal standpoint, does this game mean anything extra to you?
SHANE STEICHEN: No, I'm excited to see some of those guys. Obviously had a great time in LA/San Diego. Ton of respect for that organization. It will be good to see the guys. But just we know it's going to be a heck of a challenge.
Obviously defensively Joey Bosa is a heck of a player, elite pass rusher. And Derwin James. Good to see him back healthy. He was battling like crazy. But to see him playing again is good. We know we'll have our hands full with those guys.
Q. You get the ball in Jalen Reagor's hands more, like we saw in the first half. Was it the game he got hurt, or was it more scripted?
SHANE STEICHEN: We have a few of those things but we always have stuff. Every week we have stuff in for every guy. Sometimes it's like the way the game is flowing, oh, let's get to this. And sometimes, depending on the score, the way the game is flowing there's certain plays you gotta get to. Sometimes you don't get to all it of it. You have 65, 70 plays in a game; you don't get it all called.
Q. How has Jalen Hurts done with his eyes, when he sees the rush? Do you spend a lot of time looking at that whether his eyes are dropping or not and how he's doing?
SHANE STEICHEN: No, I think he's doing a heck of a job. Obviously he did a heck of a job managing the game last week. Third down, third and 12 backed up. To me, we talked about staffing, that was the play of the game. He got us out of backed up, scrambling, made big plays, and obviously he was efficient in throwing the football Sunday. It was good to see.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports