HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments) * *
"Looking at the tape and watching the game, evaluating our performance, a lot of things to be happy about, a lot of things we have to get fixed. The things that didn't go well were fixable things. Some penalties that really hurt us, our coverage breakdowns on special teams I think can be fixed, and offensively in the red zone, better, but still not up to our standards. So, things that we can work on and improve on, that we'll have to improve on, as we move forward. But a lot of good effort, good energy. And I think the last two weeks we've gone into, some real tough environments, we've withstood all of the emotion and energy and played pretty sound football. So that's a plus, and to be 3-0 at this point feels good."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the cause for long returns on special teams)
"I think it's really our guys having to understand that every kick is critical, and every one is a potential for a big play for us, but a potential for a catastrophe if we're not on top of the details. We kicked off eight times and had seven really good coverages, and held a Pro Bowl returner in check seven times. But the one time we didn't, it ended up being a touchdown. We had some long kicks, maybe out-kicked our coverage on the punts, and still did a good job on two of them. But one of them we didn't, and that's what we have to get corrected. We don't punt that much, and it's kind of easy to sell that, 'Hey, you may have two or three punts, we have to go down there to cover them.' But kickoffs are something that we've stressed for two years. Adam's kicking the ball well. We've kicked half of our kickoffs into the end zone this year. We just have to be better, more consistent, that we don't let that one out, one per game."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if roster turnover is an reason for the special teams play)
"Well, there's no question that's a factor in it. We have some guys who are athletic, who can run fast, who haven't done a lot of covering kicks in college. And they're a big part of our team right now, our kickoff coverage team. It's still a learning process for them. We try to keep our veterans off there. In the playoffs last year, we went back to some of those guys. We're going to try not to do that, but if we have to, we will. But I think these guys will learn and get better, and really, it's just learning the importance of doing things exactly right every single time."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the defensive backs)
"We played pretty well in the secondary, and they played very physical. We had one play we'd like to get back (at Houston), on three-deep coverage where (Andre) Davis made a great catch. Kelvin (Hayden) has to go up and knock that ball down. But for the most part, they have executed the defense. They've played with a lot of energy. They've knocked balls loose. They've made a lot of tackles. So, we're getting from them what we need."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the progression of OT-Tony Ugoh and going up against three tough rushers the first three weeks of the season—Will Smith, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Mario Williams)
