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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

10-09-2005 - Post Game Quotes

Head Coach Jon Gruden

(opening statement) "I would like to say congratulations to the Jets they played a very good game; they played hard, and credit Vinny Testaverde on a great game today."

(on Brian Griese) "Well, obviously it took us a while to get going and we struggled at times during the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game and the Jets had a large part to do with that. They are a defensive team that we said coming in here was on a cusp of playing championship football last year and they have added John Abraham and Ty Law to an outstanding defensive team. The turnover was a critical play of the game. I do think we have to play better around our QB; we had four penalties on first down runs. We had a couple of dropped passes that against a good defense will kill you."

(on coming away with only nine points in the first half) "It was deflating, but once again I want to credit the New York Jets defense. Today we had some opportunities that we couldn't take advantage of and it's tough to do much when you don't."

(on the defensive pressure) "They got after us early. They had three sacks on our first five or six passes and that will knock your QB out of rhythm on the road against a defense of this caliber. Obviously, with the penalties we got into some long yardage third down situations and again their defensive line of Abraham, Ellis, and Robertson, their quality zone defense, and their spontaneity of mixing in blitzes were tough to handle."

(on the decision to bench Cadillac Williams) "Well, we are hurting right now. Obviously (Marcus) Clayton didn't play a major role today and is clearly not himself and Carnell just isn't ready to go. Next week he will remain questionable until we see how he progresses."

(on Vinny being as effective as he was) "It's a credit to Vinny Testaverde and the Jets coaching staff and the fans who gave him support. We were unable to get to him and he made some pretty good throws. When you have WR Laveranues Coles, TE Doug Jolley and some guys you can really play around with this is a really good football team."

(on what you can learn from this loss) "Well, I'm not talking to them yet about what we have learned. It is about what we haven't learned and that is if you don't come with your "A" game you aren't going win football games. Clearly today there were some plays that we would like to have back. The opening play of the second half we had a 15 yard run called back for holding and at the end of the day that might be a play that cost us. But, you learn that nothing is easy in pro football these days and you have to play really good to win."

(on the penalties becoming a concern) "Well, it is a concern. We had several off-sides penalties today and crowd noise is one thing, but practicing in the crowd noise and having officials at every practice and yelling and screaming and things of that nature, may not be getting it done. So we may have to regroup and figure out how we can get some of these errors solved because they are clearly hurting us."

CB Ronde Barber

(on the game) "Well, obviously we didn't play particularly well. I think in the first half the defense stepped up and made some plays to thwart some scoring drives, but we didn't get anything going on offense. It felt like a little bit of a reverse in the second half; we couldn't stop any of their drives. They didn't come away with points on all of them but they ate up a lot of time. The more we're on the field, the less our offense has a chance to go down the field and make the game interesting. We just didn't play well."

(on the Jets' adjustments in the second half) "We knew they were going to try to run the ball. I felt like we did a pretty adequate job of stopping the run. But if you look at anything in the second half it's probably going to be the third-down conversions. They got a couple of them to keep those drives moving, and those are killers for us on defense."

(on his interception) "That was actually a play they ran earlier and I think I tipped it away going the other way. I think he thought he was going to get me on the line of scrimmage and just run away from me, but it was a play we knew was coming. Fool me once, good for you. Fool me twice, it's on me. We just had to make a play, and I was just the guy who happened to step up and do it."

(on the last-minute drive) "We ran out of timeouts. They're a smart defense. They're set in their bend-but-don't break mentality, the same thing we would have done. They never really lose games likes this because you usually run out of time."

(on regrouping and getting ready for Miami) "We'll go to work just like if we had won this game. We know we've got areas we need to improve in. A loss on our record doesn't change our overall goal. We'll worry about it when we have to worry about it and move on to Miami."

LB Derrick Brooks

(on the game) "We weren't as on top of our Ps and Qs as we needed to be. That's a lesson for us. After halftime, we've got to come out and hit the field with some fire. We've got to come out of the locker room and play a lot better than we played today. There are a lot of little lessons to be learned from today's loss, and we're going to do the best we can to correct this and go to work on Wednesday."

(on if it was 'devastating' to hold the Jets' offense to seven minutes of possession time in the first half and only be up by two points) "Well, I'm devastated because we lost as a team, period. The best thing about this is we have the chance to respond to some adversity. We hadn't lost in over a month, so this is going to be a good test as to how we respond to adversity with a good Miami team coming to Tampa next week."

(on what changed with the Jets in the second half) "After that drive, they didn't get anything going. So we're going to look at it internally. We didn't come out of the locker room as on top of the keys, on top of the screws as we needed to. That's something that we've got to respond to as a defense. We've got to come out of the locker room and hit the field playing a lot better than we did the opening drive of the third quarter."

(on Vinny Testaverde) "As I said earlier, New York beat us as a team. It wasn't just one guy. He made some throws, especially on third down late in the game. Laveranues [Coles] went up and made a heck of a catch when we had a chance to get off the field. You give the Jets credit: They won as a team and they deserved to win today."

WR Joey Galloway

(on why the offense struggled) "I don't know, we'll go watch the film. We were definitely out of rhythm. We'll study it tomorrow and try to correct our mistakes."

(on having the ball for 23 minutes in the first half and not building a big lead) "We didn't execute the way we had planned to. We didn't play the way we need to play to win on the road in New York. They made more plays than we did today and we came up short."

(on if the first half was deflating) "All losses are deflating…today. We'll get over it tomorrow and get ready for Miami."

(on what Miami did to stop the Bucs in the red zone) "They made the right calls at the right time. They took some things away. We didn't execute our game plan the way we wanted to in the red zone. When that happens, you won't get in the red zone."

QB Brian Griese

(on third downs) "We were in some difficult situations in third-and-long from the penalties and some of the sacks. That made it difficult. They're a good defense without us helping them by getting in those situations."

(on holding the ball in the first half and not scoring) "Well, they held the ball quite a bit in the second half. I think we only had three or four plays in the third quarter. I don't think I've ever played a game where I've had that few snaps in the third quarter, but you've got to take advantage of your opportunities. When you get in the red zone, you've got to score touchdowns."

(on the red zone problems) "It's hard to say. I need to look at the film, to look at some of the coverages and some of the things that they were doing to us."

(on Vinny Testaverde) "I'm happy for Vinny. He's a good guy. He's been around a long time and he's earned his due. It's a testament to him. He's been around a long time and he's been around for a reason. He's a great quarterback; he's proven that. I'm just happy for him; it's a great story. I hope that the Jets go on and do great things with Vinny, because he's one of the good ones."

(on third down conversions) "Like I said before, we were in a lot of third-and-longs, and the percentages go right down when you're in third-and-long."

(on if he was thrown out of rhythm by the pressure early) "They have a good front four. They brought some pressure early, but I thought I we responded and came back with a good two-minute drill, throwing the ball in the second quarter. If we would have had some more opportunities in the third quarter, we felt good. They protected very well in the fourth quarter when we couldn't run the ball and we were just throwing."

(on the timeout he called during the Bucs' last field goal drive) "It was a critical play during the game. The clock was ticking down, I wanted to get the right play called, I wanted to talk to Jon [Gruden] about the play and he wanted to talk to me. That's why we took the timeout."

(on the short pass to Ike Hilliard on third-and-10 on the touchdown drive) "We called a play and we knew they were going to be in a very soft defense. It was going to be very difficult to try to throw the ball into the end zone. That's what they were trying to stop. So our thought process was throw the ball to Ike. We knew he would be open, maybe he could get eight or nine yards and we'd be in a fourth-and-one and we could go for it at that point."

(on the interception) "Ike was open. I had to hold the ball a little bit longer for him to clear, and it was a blitz, and I just overthrew him and they picked him off."

(on if the play-calling was different without Carnell Williams in the game) "No, not at all."

(on how disappointing the first loss is) "Anytime you lose it's a disappointment. But we're going to come back from this. It's our first bit of adversity this year. But I'm confident we have the type of guys in the locker room who are going to come back with a concerted effort next week against Miami."

DE Simeon Rice

(on the game) "Hats off to them. They played a hard game. It was a hard-fought game. We've got to get it fixed, and we will. It was a tight game. We knew what we were going into, we just didn't come out of it the way we wanted to. For all intrinsic purposes, everything can be fixed."

(on the difference in the game) "We made mistakes and helped them out in crucial situations. They made good on those situations. We made more mistakes than they did. They got the win, we got the loss. We got the spoils, they got the victory. Life. We're going to fight again next week. We're still going to show up. It's not all lost in one game, it's not all won in one game. We've got a march in front of us. We're still on the side of the mountain, we're still climbing. We're alright. We're not going to put our heads in the dirt. We're going to learn from this. What I'm saying is, we're not going to panic because we lost one game. We're not going to pat ourselves in the back because we won four games. It's still early in the season. We're just coming into the second quarter. We stunk it up today, we learn from it, and we move on."

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