Q: What can you learn from the previous San Diego game and take into this game?

TYLER THIGPEN: “They’re going to come out and play hard ball like they’ve always done. (Chargers coach) Norv Turner does a good job of getting their players ready to play us, so give them a lot of credit. It was nice, already seeing them one time this year, so we kind of know what they want to do. The disadvantage is they know what we want to do. From an offensive standpoint, it’s nice to know what your defenses are and things like that.”

Q: Three weeks left. Has the season gone quickly or slowly for you?

THIGPEN: “It has gone by quickly. If you look at it from a record standpoint, it might be long. But we look at it as a team, we feel like we made some progress and we’re going in the right direction this year. So when it comes down to that, you said there’s three weeks left, how nice would it be to go out on top in these last three weeks. From a team standpoint, that’s one thing we’re looking forward to doing.”

Q: Do you have any personal goals over these last three weeks?

THIGPEN: “Yeah. Three wins would be a great success. As a team goal we want to come out and win all three of these games and look forward to next year because obviously we’re not in the playoff race or anything like that. So why not give us a reason to build on something next year? That would be nice.”

Q: Will you use these games to try to convince the organization that this is the style and that you’re the guy to run the offense in the future?

THIGPEN: “It’d be nice. If we can go out and get three wins with this kind of offense, then why not go with this offense next year. But that’s up to the front office or the organization, what they want to do. You have to let that stuff take care of itself. Our task at hand right now is the San Diego Chargers, so we’re going to try to take care of them first, then move onto Miami and then Cincinnati.”

Q: How hard is it to keep your mind off what the future may hold?

THIGPEN: “Those are the things you think about when you’re outside of football, you know, when you go home. Those aren’t things to bring to the table when you’re in here working for the San Diego Chargers, working to beat them. Those are things that will take care of themselves when the time comes. Right now we just want to take care of the task at hand.”

Q: Do you feel like you’ve done all you realistically could do to make that a difficult decision for the front office?

THIGPEN: “No, not at all. If I felt like I’ve done all I could, I would hope that I would feel like we should have won all those games. I know for myself, I’m a competitor and when it comes down to it, yeah I might have the stats so it looks good, but when it comes down to it, the win-loss record weighs heavy on a lot of people’s minds. Right now I’m not favored in that category. I don’t feel like it’s been a success for myself.”

Q: What does San Diego do defensively?

THIGPEN: “They’re pretty much the same, coverage-wise. Cover three, cover one. The second half of the game they went to a more cover two, cover six look. Cover four. I look for them maybe to do that, but on first down they want to go cover three, cover one. I don’t necessarily know that they want to change their whole defensive scheme just because of one team. Usually a defensive coordinator tries to stay true to his roots, in that aspect. They’re trying to incorporate more of the 4-3 into their defense, but it’s tough when they have 3-4 personnel. We’ll have to see and we’ll have to adjust on the fly on Sunday.”

Q: How important has TE Tony Gonzalez been to your development?

THIGPEN: “It’s nice having a veteran guy around like him. Whether it’s on the field or off the field, the guy’s always thinking football. He’s always got the mental part of football right there by his side. He’s always asking me, or telling me things that he’s thinking, so that helps me as a young quarterback. Whether it’s about a pass route or it’s about something else, you know, outside of football. He’s always trying to help, not necessarily me, but any other person that could use the help, as well.”

Q: How tough has it been to win the veterans over?

THIGPEN: “I think play, when you go out there and play football, they way I have played, it kind of does win guys over like a veteran guy. Tony (Gonzalez) is the type of guy that, as long as he’s getting the ball, he’s happy. That’s just with any guy in football, as long as they’re getting the ball, they’re happy. We all want to win, and that goes to show, when you see the faces in the locker room after a loss, to hear the guys talk about how close we are in all three phases of the game, it’s nice to hear those things.”

Q: How conscious do you have to be to not focus so much getting the ball to Tony?

THIGPEN: “I feel like I’ve done a good job of spreading the ball out. Yeah, I might have gone to Tony a little more often that somebody else, but he’s the guy you lean on. When you get him one-on-one, any day of the week, close coverage or off coverage, I feel like he’s going to win. That’s nice as a young guy, to have that. The other receivers and running backs have done well also. I couldn’t have done any of this without the offensive line, so give them a lot credit.”

Q: Do you think about how close you’ve come? That most of the losses have been a result of just a couple plays?

THIGPEN: “Yeah. There’s always things when you go back and watch the film, where you can say, ‘oh if I’d have done this or if I’d have done that.’ Those are things that you can’t fault yourself on. You’re out there and it’s a natural instinct, to make the reads that you make. You know, maybe I could have held on to it longer and waited for Tony to get open. But if I sit back there and one of the linemen gets beat and I get sacked, then we never had a chance to get it towards the goal line.”

Q: The offensive line seems to be playing better in the spread. Why is that?

THIGPEN: “It possibly could be easier for them to pass protect. It helps out them too, they always talk about it, say one guy gets beat and I have to get out of the pocket and scramble for a few yards, they’ll come up to me and say, I appreciate that. So if one guy gets beat and I have to scramble for a couple yards, he’s going to work his tail off even harder the next play to not let me down. Me as a quarterback, when they’re protecting their butts off up front, I’m going to do my best to help them out and complete the ball. It’s a team game, it really is.”