Just three seasons ago, the Chargers were 12-4 and went to the playoffs.
Since, they are 8-20, and some in the Los Angeles media are openly talking about the firing of coach Anthony Lynn.
The Falcons (4-8) are set to play the Chargers (3-9) at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
Here’s what Lynn had to say on a conference call with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday:
Q: How’s your rookie quarterback playing for you and please discuss the mobility that he brings to the position?
A: “Under the circumstances I think he’s done well. He’s always handled himself in a very mature manner. I think playing four years of college kind of helps the process. We are putting more on his plate every single week. Going into this year without an offseason, without (an exhibition) season, that slowed things down a little bit after he took over. I like how he’s handled it, the load that we have given him. Yes, he brings some mobility to the position where you can do some different things. You can move the pocket. Sometimes you can make the defense play 11-on-11. That’s always fun. We’d just like to win a few more games.
Q: Is that the future at the position, more mobile quarterbacks?
A: “When you look at high school football and you study the game, you know what’s coming. Now, it’s what you see in college. Now, that’s what you see a lot in this league. These young men are in these seven-on-seven camps so often now that they are athletes, but they also can throw from the pocket. They can throw on the move and they can run. That just puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense.”
Q: Are you taking over the special-teams units? How do you plan to make them better for this game?
A: “I just want to settle things down with the teams. Just get good at something. We made a change there unfortunately. We re-assigned some people and we had to do that in the middle of the season. You can have too many voices, a lack of clarity, a lack of communication, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for that. Yes, I am more involved and kind of taking the lead there. So, we’ll see what happens. We need some young me to step up and do their jobs on (special) teams. We lost some core players there. It was kind of like the perfect storm. We didn’t have an offseason to develop these young kids. No (exhibition) season. We are still learning what they can do and can’t do and most of these kids have never played special teams before in their life. It’s just something that we have to improve on.”
Q: What do you see in the matchup with the Falcons’ defense? You’ve got the third ranked pass offense going against the 30th ranked pass defense?
A: “I don’t know. Over the last four weeks, I don’t know if that stat is legit. I see a pass rush. I see athletes. I see an attacking style defense that’s causing problems. They are going to be hard to block. They run so many different games, stunts and pressures. We must handle that really well. We’ll have to be on top of our game to get this done.”
Q: What do you see from the Falcons’ offense and their run game which has been lacking?
A: “I know that they have a talented offensive line. Those guys were highly thought of when they came out of college. They have one of the top backs in the game that’s probably back and healthy. It’s probably just a matter of time. Some of it can be just chemistry. But they have some weapons. When you can throw the ball as well as they can throw the ball that opens up the run game.”
Falcons’ final four games
Falcons at Chargers at 4:25 p.m., Sunday
Buccaneers at Falcons at 1 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 20
Falcons at Chiefs at 1 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 27
Falcons at Buccaneers at 1 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 3
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