--Fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell was in no mood to explain him being the scapegoat for the unit hours after he was canned. "I don't feel like talking right now," Cottrell said. "Maybe later on. Give me a call later on, but I just don't feel like talking right now."

--John Pagano will work with the inside and outside linebackers with Ron Rivera, the former inside linebackers coach, being elevated. But Rivera is expected to have his nose in all three areas of defense, which is ranked 28th overall and 32nd against the pass. "There will be some things that I will help in terms of the linebackers as I will the other positions," Rivera said. "Coach (Turner) would like to have me move around from one spot to the other and just kind of see how things are being done."

--Coach Norv Turner said the defensive shortcomings can't all be laid at Cottrell's feet. "As I said, it's never one guy and it's everyone doing their job," he said. "Ultimately, somewhere along the way I have to make the decision of how are we going to get to where we need to get to. That decision was made in terms of the coaching but we have a lot of issues that we need to handle to get to where we want to go."

--The team will practice just once during the bye week. The players are still talking about getting their body clocks back in order after spending 11 days on the road in two different countries.

--New defensive coordinator Ron Rivera didn't sound as if he was going to make lineup changes. That said, he did admit he is going to evaluate every player on his unit.

--Four of the Chargers' next five games are at home, starting with the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 9. In fact, the Chargers play the Chiefs twice in the second half.

BY THE NUMBERS 2 -- Times Norv Turner has fired his defensive coordinator during a season. He also canned Ron Lynn while with the Redskins in 1996.

QUOTE TO NOTE "I hate to get into hypotheticals. The trend was there and that's what concerned me." -- Coach Norv Turner, when asked if watching the Saints' Drew Brees carve up the Chargers for 339 yards and three touchdowns was the last straw for the Ted Cottrell defense.