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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN

MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2002

(Injury Report)
“We have several injuries to report. Anthony McFarland has a right forearm fracture, he’ll be out six to eight weeks. That’s a terrible blow for our football team, a terrible blow for the Buccaneers. We’ll be optimistic that he will be able to return quicker than that. Knowing McFarland and knowing Todd Toriscelli, our head trainer, we hope to have Anthony back before that. But this is a break in his right forearm that will cause him to miss some action. Ryan Nece, our young linebacker has a left ACL rupture, he’s out for the season. Kerry Jenkins fractured an orbital, his left orbital. He obviously could not return yesterday and his status for this game is very questionable. Ryan Benjamin, our long snapper, has a hamstring sprain. He is questionable for this game, but I thought he did a great job yesterday. Given the fact that he was injured, he fired a couple of key strikes back there to (Martin) Gramatica in critical situations. Joe Jurevicius was unable to finish the game yesterday, he has an ankle sprain that will make him very questionable for this game. Rob Johnson has a right gluteal sprain and we will list him as questionable, although we expect him to play. Brad Johnson and Keenan McCardell are making progress, although Brad was very ill yesterday and could not have played even if he had healthy ribs. He has some kind of stomach virus of some kind, but we will leave Brad and Keenan very questionable for the game. Keyshawn Johnson has a lower foot contusion that we are gaining information on at this time. We have several injuries that are concerning. It was a great win for our football team yesterday, given these circumstances and Carolina was a very physical team.”

(Deflating injuries)
“(The injuries) are very deflating. But at the same time it is part of football. We obviously, for Anthony McFarland, for what he gives this team from a leadership standpoint, a playmaking standpoint, in some ways it’s very disappointing. But if you watched (Chartric) Darby play yesterday, there is some optimism. If you watched Warren Sapp carefully, we had reason for optimism. Ryan Nece has been a key performer for us on special teams, that will be an area that we will need to address; who will pick up the slack for Ryan Nece. He’s a great prospect, a guy we have high hope for here. Kerry Jenkins is a major concern, he has had a rough year. He played with a fracture in his leg and now he has a fractured orbital, so it’s a very concerning issue. Our receiving corps is beat up right now. We played the game with our third flanker, for most of the second half yesterday, without Jurevicius and McCardell. So there are issues, as well as your starting quarterback. There are things that we have to overcome, and it will be a real test for us this week against the Vikings.”

(Offensive line play)
“There were a couple of things that happened yesterday that were inexcusable. And I said yesterday that they were embarrassing. We just need to be more disciplined in terms of our communication, in terms of our sets, in the heat of the battle. When the guard is expecting a guy to be here and the center is expecting a guy to be there, they have to be there. And that’s basically what occurred in a couple of key situations yesterday. We have to play a lot better on the offensive line. We’ve said it week in and week out that we have the potential to do that and we’ll say it again this week. We have to play better.”

(Offensive growing pains)
“I’m not going to make excuses and say that this offense is that hard. This is the National Football League. We are running man protection, slide protection just like everybody else. We run zone block plays, counter block plays, power plays, just like everybody else. So I’m not going to stand up here and say that this offense takes 12 years to master, because that’s a bunch of hogwash. There were some good things we did offensively and there were some vivid illustrations where we just took that gun and shot ourselves right in the foot, with some inexcusable play that corrupts drives, stalls us in some situations, and against a good football team like North Carolina, they are going to make you pay for it. We are going to play better and we are going to prove that to you. All I can do is stand up here in front of Buccaneer fans and promise that we will work hard to get that done. I’m not going to stand up here and defend the offense. We’re 6-2. What the offense did is take that ball, with 1:19 left on their own 28, and put themselves in a position for a Gramatica score, with a backup quarterback and a third string quarterback coming in, ready, willing and able. We’re playing with a lot of guys that are out right now and at the same time we’re playing against some good defensive clubs, now. But we are 6-2. I realize that there are some areas, not only on offense, but in other areas, that we need to improve upon. But we’ve won four out of five games on the road, it’s been a long stretch for this football team, we’re going to get better. I appreciate the criticism and concern, I really do. I feel the same way Buc fans.”

(Adjusting to three receivers being injured)
“We’ll see. Reggie Barlow and Karl Williams were two guys that played a lot yesterday. Charles Lee is on our football team and is a guy that we might have to lean on to, to activate and make plays for us. Who knows? We’ll see the official status of Keenan McCardell and Joe Jurevicius tomorrow, after one more day sleeping on these injuries. We’ll see where Keyshawn is when we get some results of his MRI.”

(Starting quarterback)
“We’ll get a good read on that in the next 48 hours in terms of Rob Johnson’s status and Brad Johnson’s. If neither one of those guys can go; Shaun King will be the starter against Minnesota.”

(Rob Johnson’s play)
“I never thought about making a switch. I thought early in the game he moved our team. I though we had three real good drives that were stopped for inexcusable reasons. But there were a couple of plays where I thought he tried to force the issue a little too much. The interception was a vivid example of that. But I thought for his first start, to get away from North Carolina with a win as a starting quarterback, is a good beginning. I expect him to become a great quarterback, that’s the only expectations we have for him and hopefully he understands that.”

(Character building game help the team)
“Absolutely (this win will help the team in the second half of the season). I think if you stay around this league long enough and take note that anytime you can get a victory on the road, especially when you come from behind in the fourth quarter to get it, there’s some real good things to be said about that. And as bad as it was at times offensively, to button up your chinstrap, go out there one more time and do enough to get the win, is real encouraging. We have good, strong willed men here. They have a lot of pride. I’m not going to guarantee anything but death and taxes, but we are going to get better. I thought yesterday was a gut-check of a serious magnitude and I’m proud of our football team.”

(Running out of replay challenges)
“One challenge worked, I was one for two. I argue with those officials a lot, as you know. I’m trying to lobby for nine or 10 challenges, I don’t like that rule of just two challenges. I usually use them up in the first quarter. I thought the one play, where the receiver made a big catch, was appropriate to challenge. On Rob Johnson’s fumble, sometimes you don’t get instant replay access in the press box. You have to sometimes in a key situation, in a game like that, you might as well say, ‘let’s look at that again,’ and make sure it wasn’t a fumble.’ Because that is obviously an impact play in terms of field position, that was the reason for the second challenge. Although if we would have had a better look at it, I would have known that that was in no way anything but a fumble. We try to get as much information as we can from the press box, but that was probably more of an emotional call at that time, but I felt the first one was very appropriate. Impact plays, where you think there is reason to ask for a replay, whether it’s in the first quarter or fourth quarter, I think is more than appropriate to challenge. Both of those were big plays. One of them was a 37 or 38-yard completion and the other was a fumble inside our own 10-yard line. So I think if it is an impact play and there is reasonable belief to challenge it, I think it’s very appropriate.”

(Alstott’s history against Minnesota)
“We’re going to try to get Mike more and more involved, but to do that you need to make more plays and convert more situations. We would like to get Mike Pittman a history against the Minnesota Vikings, too. Just because he has never played against the Vikings doesn’t mean he won’t get a chance to play against them either.”

(Appreciation for defense)
“They are playing extremely well and as a head coach of this football team, you don’t want to lose sight of how proud you are of the defense. At the same time, I’m not going to stand up here and create controversy. I know that’s stirring about how the offense needs to do this and deservingly so. But our defense, without a doubt, is a major reason why we are a 6-2 football team. They have been outstanding and we expect that to continue. This defense needs to continue to play to their standards down the stretch.”

(Comparison to the 2000 Baltimore Ravens)
“I’m not a Raven fan. I’m not familiar with the Ravens.”

(Factor of Rob’s mobility yesterday)
“It was at times. He made a couple of key scrambles, one on a key play to Jurevicius, a completion, one for a critical gain late in the football game, and a couple of times just to get out of the way and get rid of the ball to keep us in normal operations situations. I thought it was a positive, but we need to do a better job to let him stand in there and select a throw in rhythm, and that’s something we need to address.”

(Avoiding letdowns at home)
“I can’t imagine anyone slacking off looking at this injury report. We have a lot to prove in the second half of the season. We were 3-1 in each quarter, we’re going to begin the third quarter of the season at home, in our stadium, in front of our fans; we need our fans now. We have missed our fans. We have been on the road a lot and we are looking to play our best football in Raymond James Stadium, and we’re set out to do that.”

(Shaun King’s play)
“It was an amazing thing. The big thing was, Shaun King is a guy that is standing there on the sideline with his helmet on ready to go. We did not want to use a timeout. Rob got hurt on that last scramble and no one really knew it. We called a play and we had no quarterback. We couldn’t find Rob. He got hit, questionably late. But he got hit out of bounds and never surfaced. So we had 10 guys in the huddle, we had the play called, but we couldn’t find Rob. Shaun was standing right next to me, we threw him out there and he makes a key play to Karl Williams to set up the decisive field goal. Shaun King’s a player. He’s into football and he will get his opportunity, he knows that and he will make sure he’s ready for that.”

(Brad Johnson’s ribs)
“He’s still questionable. He’s not able to uncork the football at the level he needs to throw it, at least that was my feeling at the end of last week. But we’ll see where he is (this week) when he gets healthy enough from this virus, where he can go out there and really test the ribs, but we don’t really know.”

(Special teams play)
“I said hip-hip-hooray four times for Gramatica. That was a great job. Jenkins goes down, Warren Sapp has to check in the game as an eligible receiver at tight end on the field goal team. Ryan Benjamin has a bad hamstring, can hardly jog, let alone go out on the field. It was impressive. It was very exciting and impressive, and hip-hip-hooray for Gramatica, that’s what we said (after the game).”

(Play of Martin Gramatica)
“My incremental feeling for Gramatica increased yesterday. Those balls that he kicked, were towering, majestic type blows. I mean they were beautiful things. He really drilled them. They might have been good from 65 yards, honestly. They sailed through the up-rights. It’s amazing to see a guy that size hit the ball with that type of trajectory, that type of explosion. It just goes to show you that if we can give him a good clean look at the goal posts, he’s going to make his kicks. He’s done that for years here and he’s a huge reason why this franchise is on an upward swing.”

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