SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- A few takeaways from the San Diego Chargers' locker room after the team's 38-35 win over the San Francisco 49ers:

A confidence builder: To a man, San Diego players said even though they were down 28-7, the Chargers believed they could get back into the game against the 49ers.

"It was just, 'Let's play ball,'" Chargers cornerback Brandon Flowers said, when asked what players talked about at halftime. "They put up 28 points in the first half, and we were saying, Why can't we put up 28 points in the second half? As a defense, we know what Philip Rivers can do. We go against him in practice every day.

"We felt like it was our fault in the first half. So we needed to just get the ball back to Phil, and just leave it in his hands, and we'll be all right. We have all the confidence in the world in our offense, and they came through for us."

Novak on game winner: Chargers kicker Nick Novak said he and special-teams coordinator Kevin Spencer told coach Mike McCoy they felt confident making the winning field goal attempt about 40 yards out from that side of the field.

"It was good footing," Novak said. "There was no wind tonight. Usually there's quite a bit of wind in the stadium. It was really right in the middle. Everything went well and according to plan."

No plans for Chris Davis: I asked McCoy whether he thought about using rookie Chris Davis as a return guy on San Francisco kicker Phil Dawson's 60-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation to win the game. Davis, of course, returned a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown for the winning touchdown in the Iron Bowl for Auburn last year.

"Yeah, we talked about everything," McCoy said. "But we were doing some things there, getting King Dunlap in the game, and this and that. So there were a lot of things. I was just making sure we had 11 out there."

Injury update: Center Chris Watt (ankle), guard Johnnie Troutman (knee) and cornerback Shareece Wright (concussion) left the game with injuries and did not return. Melvin Ingram (hip) and Flowers (ankle) left the game but returned.