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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Quotes from HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2002

(Injury Report)
“I would like to update you on our injuries. Kerry Jenkins, Keenan McCardell, Joe Jurevicius are still rehabbing from their injuries and we do list them as probable for the Carolina game, although their status on the practice field will be questionable this week. We are excited about their return. Jeff Christy is going to have his right knee scoped today, it’s an old injury and he will be probable for the Carolina game. He has had some problems with this off-and-on since the beginning of training camp, so we are going to use this bye week to clean that up.”

(On expectations of Jenkins, McCardell, and Jurevicius playing against Carolina)
“Yes (they all should return against Carolina).”

(Feelings about the team going into the bye week)
“It is always a great feeling to win. It’s a different feeling today because there is not an urgency, from the standpoint that we do not have a game next week, but we still have a lot of work to do. I’m proud of our team, but we do realize that there is still work to be done.”

(On goals for the bye week)
“We are going to have two practice dates, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, then we will give our players Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off to get mentally and physically rejuvenated. I think that is very important and I think the bye week is a good time to do that. We’ll have a bonus practice on Monday, so we’re going to do a little extra work. We are going to try to clean up some things, not only on offense and defense but in the kicking game during that period. We are going to try to isolate some players, like Shaun King, Travis Stephens, some of our young players, Charles Lee, new players, Tutan Reyes, get them some work and try to look at a few things structurally that we need to improve on.”

(Importance of the bye week falling in the middle of the season)
“(The importance of the bye week) depends on how the season is going. I think to have it at the midpoint of the season is a good thing because you have played eight or nine games and you have some sore bodies, and you get an opportunity to freshen up a little bit and at the same time we have to be careful coming off a bye that you don’t slip. I have seen teams come off a bye and not play very well. We have a schedule that I’m certainly comfortable with and we are going to try and sell it to our team, our coaches and come off the bye playing extremely strong football.”

(Areas that structurally need to be improved)
“I can’t be real specific. I wouldn’t want that to get out now. But there are some fundamental communication issues on offense that we need to do a better job of, and at the same time there are some specific phases of our attack that we have not done much of, if at all, that we would like to start and get into. So we would like to bring some of that to the forefront this week and that goes for the defense as well.”

(On how the running game can improve over the next two weeks)
“Hopefully, a healthy Jeff Christy and a healthy Kerry Jenkins can assist us in that area. We have to do a better job double-teaming. We need to do a better job using disciplined footwork. We can practice, practice, and practice, but when you play the game you have to be more disciplined with the courses in our footwork and technique. I know it sounds elementary but it’s facts. Sometimes we get into the game and a six-inch step becomes a 12-inch step, we get spread out, we get split. We have some things that need to be cleaned up and I don’t know how long we can practice, we need to start seeing some of these quickly.”

(On why Mike Alstott started at tailback)
“Our backs are kind of like a committee. We are going to utilize the whole committee throughout the season and hopefully at different times and places when we will emphasize one more than the other. I thought yesterday our big back combination, Alstott and (Jameel) Cook, could get us some hidden yardage, some physical inside yardage and set up the play-action pass, which was very good for us yesterday. Although the running game did not net a whole lot of yardage, it did indeed add a lot of sting to our play-action passing game. We want to get (Michael) Pittman going again, I thought he ran hard in his three carries. I thought Aaron Stecker, all he does is make plays, and why he’s not carrying the ball more is a good question.”

(On why Stecker does not get the ball more often)
“It’s been hard. We want to give our guys. Mike (Alstott) and Mike (Pittman), those two guys, we feel like are good players, they practice well, and we think if given some real good consistent looks, they will be playmakers for us. Before you discriminate and say, ‘let’s go with this guy or this guy’ we want to stay with our man. And that’s a big reason why and you can’t deny the fact that Stecker just makes plays. We need to be more creative, or maybe more willing to get him the ball more earlier. He’s always involved (in the game plan). He’s part of our ‘Badger Back’ combination. He comes into the game and has some specific things that are on the table for him every week. Yesterday, we didn’t get to a lot of them, we did in Carolina a little bit more, but he is a good player. But he is a good player that maybe we will look to use creatively down the stretch.”

(On being concerned with Stecker losing focus)
“I’m not going to get into that. We will decide who is playing here and we are going to try and win the game. I know there are a lot of teams that have lobbyists and they have brochures out about how they should see the ball. We are going to distribute the ball in a way that will give us a chance to win, and I will be the first to say that we have to do a better job, creatively, to get Aaron Stecker involved with this football team. At the same time, Pittman and Alstott are players. I think if we do a better job coaching, blocking and finishing those guys will be productive runners for us also.”

(On different looks Stecker gives the offense)
“He’s a different size and (has) a different type of lateral quickness. He’s a sure-handed guy that we can utilize in the passing game as well. We will make an attempt to do that. We try to utilize all of our backs and we will take a good look at that in the next 10 days.”

(On Jameel Cook compared to Mike Alstott)
“Mike is a five-time Pro Bowl fullback where his majority of plays have come in a halfback setting. He has been a one-back guy and he has been an I-formation tailback. He hasn’t played a whole lot of fullback in a three-point stance in front of a tailback. We have tried to make that transformation at the same time we realize he is a good runner from the I-set and from the one back location. Jameel Cook is really the only pure fullback active at this point, other than Darian Barnes. And we need more progress, we need more jazz in the hole. We obviously need to catch the football when it’s thrown to us and we think he has that capability and will get better.”

(On using all of the teams’ backs)
“I feel that there are a lot of good players in this league and we’re trying to create the robo-back. A guy that can be the perfect back, with the size, the inside power of an Alstott, the pattern running and the explosiveness in the hole of a Pittman, the lateral quickness of a Travis Stephens, and I don’t want to forget about our rookie either, we want to get him on the field. This might be as thick and quick of a back as we have. We are just trying to change the face of our attack a little bit, and not let anyone zoom in on what we are trying to do and just present a different speed, a different pace to the game.”

(On moving Keyshawn Johnson around in the offense)
“Keenan McCardell and Jurevicius were out yesterday and obviously we were a little bit more creative with our usage of him. But I think he does respond to that, I think he likes the image of lining up in three-point stances in the backfield and all over the place. Whatever turns him on we are going to try to accommodate him. We want him to feel good and we want to get him the football.”

(On the effort of Simeon Rice)
“He’s very effective. He has seven-and-a-half sacks right now. The inside pressure we are bringing with (Warren) Sapp is giving him some good looks on the outside. And he is a real good pass rusher and he is a great finisher. He has some long arms, he closes on people quickly and I really think that this guy is on the cusp of being something unique. At times you see it, you know what his firepower is, and I am really excited about the future with Simeon Rice and what he brings to the Buccaneer defense.”

(On perceptions of where the team will be)
“We are not going to underestimate seven wins at this point of the season, that’s a great accomplishment and we’re proud of it. We have our critics, we have our suspects who say that we are not playing a schedule up to the standards of other teams, but I think we played a difficult schedule. We played five games on the road and I don’t know of any other team that has won four on the road. We played with a lot of back-up players. We have shown some resiliency, anytime you lose your home opener and come back to win four out of five on the road, that says something about the character of your football team. So we like the make-up of our guys. We have a good coaching staff that really gets after it hard, so we’ll see where it takes us. We just have to make sure we manage this bye properly and come to the hunt in our next ballgame.”

(On the season so far)
“I’ve been accused of having to be miserable to be happy my whole life, so I can’t say that I’m overly giddy about anything. We have so much work to do and we have worked so hard to obtain a pretty good record and put ourselves in position to maybe do something. And to me, it becomes the greatest responsibility of all, how you handle success and how you can close this season out. I think it will be exciting to witness and I think it’s a challenge for us all.”

(On changes on the offensive line)
“We are always going to look for ways to get better. It’s hard to make a lot of teams at this stage of the season. Kerry Jenkins comes back, he will be our left guard. Roman Oben has played pretty solid left tackle. Todd Washington is a guy that started at right guard, left guard, and now he’s our (backup) center. Jeff Christy can hopefully come back after this injury and have some injury-free play for us down the stretch. We need to get better on the right side, Cosey (Coleman) and Kenyatta (Walker), because that’s their ability. At times you see it and at times you see that we still have work to do.”

(On offensive explosiveness)
“I hope (that it is the trend to come). We want to put together an offense that is not only competitive, but exciting. And I think yesterday Brad Johnson, our receiving corps, our pass protection did some good things. We are going to work hard to become not a good offense, but a great offense. It’s a hard thing to do. My wife has been working on our house for nine months and it’s not even close to being finished yet. But I feel that way about our offense. It’s happening, it’s happening. I see things going on in there, it’s improving. It’s kind of like our house, it’s not the nicest place right now, but it’s getting better.”

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