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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

09-25-2005 - Post Game Quotes

Head Coach Jon Gruden

(on the play of safety Will Allen) "He is another young guy that is getting his first real opportunity to play critical snaps, meaningful games early in the season and he made some real hits. Our support was outstanding today on the second level. I thought he had some great hits and he obviously made the big interception."

(on rookie running back Carnell Williams becoming the first NFL player to begin his career with three straight 100-yard games) "I don't want to inflate his start or deflate it. In my lifetime in the NFL he is the best back I've coached. That doesn't mean anything. That just means that after three games I am making that statement. He has to back it up the rest of the season. I'll say this about him; he is as tough as they get, he was limited on the practice field and the look in his eye is going to give our offensive football team a chance every Sunday."

(on Brett Favre) "I thought about throwing the ball and trying to score a touchdown and then going for two with him over there. A guy that has that criteria and history of bringing his team from behind; the fourth down play that he makes on the touchdown made us concerned with him, but our defense played very well today."

(on Tampa Bay's defensive stand after cornerback Ahmad Carroll's interception) "It was huge. Again, there was a lot of plays in this game. I am emotional right now. I would be incorrect if I stood up here and told you what were the bigger plays because there were many."

Safety Will Allen

(on his second interception of Brett Favre) "Juran (Bolden) made a great play because he got beat in the first quarter on that one touchdown because he got beat and this time he was there right with the receiver running stride for stride and he got a tip on it. I just seen the ball tipped and I was just running to the ball. If the receiver would have caught it or not I was just there to be a security and right when I seen the tip I said here goes the pick and I just ran and got it."

(on the impact of Tampa Bay's young players) "That is the responsibility we have. Coach Gruden constantly tells us that he needs a lot out of his first year players and more out of his second year players because we know what is going and we have been around for a year, we know the name of the game so we just have to go out there and produce. I am out there on special teams, I am on defense, so when I have an opportunity to play I have to capitalize on every opportunity I have and make the best of it and then take it even more. I think today I showed that and I am just blessed and I am happy that I had the opportunity."

Running Back Carnell Williams

(on what it means to this team to be 3-0) "I think it means a lot. In all my experiences in football anytime a team can go on the road and win, that is the sign of a great team. We know that it is still early and we have to keep at it, but we are showing signs of greatness."

(on the support from the offensive line) "Those guys deserve all of the credit. They are doing a heck of a job up front. On the run where I think it was second down, we were running out the clock when I had an 18-yard run, if you saw how much push those guys got, the back side wasn't even there. Those guys are doing a heck of a job up front."

(on if he thought he would bust a long run) "To be honest with you I did. I can't explain the feelings you get as a back. I am sure all great backs get it. As the game goes on and you are still getting carries you feel like the defense is going to mess up in some way and you are going to bust one."

Green Bay Packers Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Mike Sherman

(on Na'il Diggs' playing time) "It was the first time he played and we wanted to rest him a little bit. There was no injury concerns."

(on the challenge of being 0-3) "First of all we just lost to a 3-0 team. We helped them become 3-0 as well. They earned 3-0. We lost by one point. We had a missed field goal, a missed extra point and four turnovers by our team. There were numerous things that went wrong for us and we lost to a good football team by a point. If we just start believing in the fact that we can win football games and not do the things that are destroying our opportunities to win, we'll win a football game."

(on the missed extra point and field goal) "The missed extra point – the snap was high. I didn't see the hold. I made the assumption that it was going to be automatic. I was talking to someone who just came out of the game at the time and I didn't see it. We just missed a field goal. I didn't see a bad hold there or a bad snap."

(on the decision to go for it on fourth down) "I didn't want to punt the ball into the end zone. B.J. (Sander) had two punts and punted pretty well in the game. But at that point in the game we needed to take that chance. I didn't think the field goal was a possibility. I didn't want to punt, so we took the shot and we were fortunate enough to make it. It got us going, it gave us some life and it continued all the way up to the very end when they controlled the ball in their four minute offense."

(on the challenged fumble call) "They missed the call. It's very difficult to be a team in the situation that we're in when people are making mistakes. We have to live with our mistakes. And we have to live with someone else's mistake and that makes it tough. In spite of that we still should have won the ball game, not done the things we self inflicted."

Quarterback Brett Favre

(on how it feels to be 0-3) "It feels terrible. I was talking to Ted Thompson before I came in. He wasn't here last year when we were 1-4, when it was shocking and disappointing, especially after how we opened up against Carolina. There were higher expectations last year. Being 0-3 or 1-4, I don't know if one feels worse than the other. It's hard to find any silver lining in 0-3. But the show must go on and we have to find a way to win a game."

(on if he thinks any of his interceptions were poor throws) "No, I really don't. A risky throw was the fourth-down throw. If there was ever pressure on you, if you overthrow it or under throw it, it's fourth down, if you throw it and it gets picked so what? There was a guy underneath who was open, so why didn't we go for the first down? We knew going into the game, and I think we executed our game plan well, that they jump routes, that's what they're good at. Their front four is excellent at rushing the passer, so they are able to read routes and drops of the quarterback, so we wanted to take some shots and have those DBs thinking and we did a good job of that. The only one I wish I had thrown differently was the one with Donald (Driver) in the seam."

(on his role now as compared to when he was younger) "I'm sure if Mike (Sherman) were in here he'd say he really does not want me to direct traffic, like that or for any quarterback, veteran or young guy. You're better off when guys line up and they do what they're supposed to do and I can be concerned with my reads and things like that. But the upside with having a veteran guy is that I can direct traffic when need be. Does it affect your decision making sometimes? Maybe, but that's part of being a quarterback, getting guys lined up and expecting a lot out of yourself and guys around you. I'm still a starting quarterback for Green Bay and they expect me to lead this team to victory and to make plays, sometimes when they're not there. I think the only difference is now you can't try to make plays that are not there and not get away with it. You take a gamble and it doesn't pay off, you can't do that. That's much different than it was in the past."

Kicker Ryan Longwell

(on missing two kicks) "We expect to make every single kick we try, and it's alarming when we don't. The extra point, we really didn't have a shot. It was just out of sequence. As I've always told you guys, it takes all 11 of us to make a kick and all 11 of us to miss a kick. We had no shot of making that one. You have 1.26 seconds and B.J. (Sander) has a clock in his head, as do I, and the snap came back way behind him. He was trying to rush to get it around and when it's that far off, you kind of lose the bearing on where the spot is."

(on the missed extra point being the margin of defeat) "We played well on offense, well on defense. There was some good signs in this game, we had some character in this game as a team, which was fun. That's the way this game is. It's so close nowadays, that a kick can help you win a game or cost you a game. Today, it didn't go our way."

Running Back Ahman Green (on how not to make losing a habit) "You forget about it, and you move on. If you keep dwelling on the bad stuff that happens, nothing good is going to happen in the future. You have to keep chugging along, one day at a time."

(on being able to run the ball effectively against Tampa Bay) "It's good, but we still lost the game. We still had too many errors to try to win this game against a good team. And Tampa Bay is a good team, they are 3-0. They did the job they had to do. There is no reason for us to (lower) our heads. We are playing against another good NFC South team (next week) in Carolina. We are going to relax tonight and look at film and get ready for Carolina on Wednesday."

(on what it takes to make the running game effective) "We were effective today, but it's penalties, it's turnovers that hurt us as a whole offense. But the running game was very effective."

(on the run blocking) "I can't be mad at my toolbox. What I have in my toolbox is what I have to work with. I just told those boys to get in front of me. If you see the other color, blast their (butt)."

(on the Packers turnover ratio) "You can't win like that. You see numbers like that, it's obvious you can't win. When you are in a situation like ours and you have a mistake that you make, especially against a good team like Tampa Bay…you can't have those mistakes."

Linebacker Na'il Diggs

(on the difference in today's ball game) "I could sit here and think about 20 plays and say, 'If we make this play, we win the game.' If we kick a field goal, if we make a catch, if we make an interception…it could always go either way. It happens the way it was supposed to happen. We've got to keep working to make it happen for us, not against us. We have to overcome penalties, turnovers and hitting and tackling. That's something we've got to fix in-house. That's something that is all fixable."

(on 1-4 start last year being similar to 0-3 this year) "You don't feel good. Either way, you feel like crap. If it's 1-4 or 0-3, basically, we're at the same stage we were last year. We lost three in a row last year and we just lost three in a row now. It's the same situation, but it feels different. It never always feels the same, and I never want it to feel the same. I don't want to get use to it. I don't want to say, 'This feels like last year.'"

(on the frustration in the loss) "Being that close to beating a team like that in our house, just being that close is motivating. It's motivating to walk into the locker room after that game and say, 'We have, we just have to put it together.' There really wasn't any question as far as not having it or having too many young guys. I think we always knew we had it, and I think we are proving it to ourselves."

Fullback William Henderson

(on the offensive production) "The running game was one place where I was happy with us today. We need to improve overall in judgment and just finish. I thought we did a lot better job playing today than we have in the past. But still, we can't let wins slip away from us."

(on 1-4 start last year being similar to 0-3 this year) "This is two totally different teams, but the heart is still there. The desire to go out and represent ourselves well is still there. There is going to be a lot of attention to detail this week; going back to the fundamentals, like we always do, win or lose. But I'm quite sure that we're going to make the best possible play to try and get ready for a Carolina team that has been successful."

Safety Nick Collins (on his last tackle of Carnell "Cadillac" Williams) "I was just trying to make a play, a big play, maybe make something happen. I was trying to get the ball out, but it didn't work that way."

(on coming back from 0-3) "The season just started. We can overcome anything. We have to let the coaches do their job, we do our job and put it in God's hands. Hopefully, we'll get it together."

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