TODD HALEY: “Pretty simple as far as I could tell without watching the tape. We went into it with one of our keys being [do] not to turn the ball over, which is something we go into every game [keying], but this one specifically.

“We talked about defensively not giving up big plays. We gave up too many big plays that put us in a hole that we’re just not really capable of overcoming.

“I thought the game kind of started the way we wanted it to start, and then some of the things that we did, we put ourselves in a hole pretty quick that was going to make it hard to overcome.”

Q: Did you think your team was beyond having a game like this?

HALEY: “No. I looked at this game as an opportunity to kind of see where we were. We came off a very big win against a good team; we had the Thanksgiving week to kind of deal with and then play the division leaders, so there was a lot going on and trying to manage. Look at it from my vantage point of an opportunity to see if maybe we could take another little baby step. We didn’t, clearly, today.

“Are we beyond that? No. If you turn the ball over, it’s going to get out of hand quick, which is exactly what happened. Then it gets ugly. I thought the guys fought it out. We tried to make some plays. We had some positives for sure. I think Jamaal Charles is one without a doubt, minus the fumble, which really hurt us because we’re trying to answer a score after their three-play [scoring] drive. We’re moving down the field pretty well. If we can get points there, something positive there, we might be able to hang in the game. We turned the ball over. Minus that, Jamaal is showing that he can be a pretty good back potentially.

“I thought we were able to move the ball sporadically offensively. Defensively, again, it comes down to big plays for us. We just can’t overcome it.”

Q: As shotgun centers go, how does Rudy Niswanger rate?

HALEY: “I’ve not seen a problem with Rudy until today. But clearly there were a couple of those that really hurt us. To this point, I think that’s something that I’ve never seen as an issue with Rudy. It kind of came out of nowhere. We’ll have to study it. We talked to him a little bit and he’s a stand-up guy and is pretty much willing to take anything. Again, we’re going to have to look at and see exactly what was going on or if we put him in a compromising spot, or what the deal was.”

Q: Can you talk about the big plays? Were the Chargers picking on the secondary?

HALEY: “Again, we’ve got to look at the tape because there are some things that we’ve been doing better to give ourselves a chance to keep that from happening. Give them credit, they looked like they executed pretty well throughout the game [but] too many guys running open.

“We were making strides and doing some things that we felt were kind of giving us a chance to succeed in that area. Just not the way you want the game to go. The score didn’t indicate that we were competitive.”

Q: Is that proof you need more work cutting down on the big plays?

HALEY: “I didn’t have any delusions that, all of a sudden, we went from one thing to the other. It’s a process of improving, but I did feel like we were making progress. Today it didn’t show.”

Q: Talk about Chris Chambers’ day.

HALEY: “I would say Chris is another bright spot for us, a guy that has assimilated fairly quickly. He was beat up a bit going in, but I think he made a couple of plays early that got us in a position to make it a game and appeared to do most of the things we asked of him to give us a chance to win.”

Q: Do you think your team relaxed too much this week?

HALEY: “In the process of trying to become a better team, this clearly was an opportunity for us to grow. After beating the Raiders on the road, Pittsburgh coming to our place, this was an opportunity to improve as a team [or]…show some improvement.

“Now, as we all know in the NFL, every week there’s another one coming at you. I just don’t think we handled that. Whatever it was, whether it was coming off beating Pittsburgh, I can’t exactly say without putting some more time into it. What I’m disappointed about is that it was an opportunity to build on last week and we didn’t do that. Now, we’ve got to go back to work.”

Q: Do you regret giving the players Thanksgiving Day off?

HALEY: “As a result of the game, I’d have to say I would have potentially done it differently. But at the same time, I felt pretty good about how the guys responded during the week. It didn’t translate to Sunday. That was a decision that was made with a lot of thought. As a non-head coach, I’ve been a part of a lot of different Thanksgiving schedules and it was the way I decided to go and I don’t know if I’d do it differently, all things considered.”