HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(opening comments following Monday night's win against Minnesota) 11/9/04
"It was a game where I thought we did a lot of things well and just a few things poorly that really ended up hurting us. But, we were able to maintain our poise and play 60 minutes and win the game. We were probably four or five plays from having a game that we didn't have to sweat so much, and I'm sure Minnesotafeels that they were just four or five plays from winning the game. And that's how it is a lot of times.
"Our coverage units, we had some guys unblocked on both of the long returns and couldn't make the tackles. That was a little disappointing because we had to win that field position battle. We had one good return, and it got called back…and then, Culpepper, just had the ability to move around and make things happen, made a couple of third downs that kept drives going. If we could have gotten them off a little bit in the first half, we had a chance to stretch that lead a little bit. But, that's how it is when you play good teams, you have to play 60 minutes. And we did, fortunately."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on the kickoff situation) 11/9/04
"It's everything. You'd like to get the great kicks. The kicks were all about the same and most of them we covered fairly well, a couple of them we didn't. And it's a matter of running hard and being in your lane and doing everything right, every time. And when you kick off five or six times, you have to be perfect. And we weren't on a couple. It's the same thing all year. Yeah, we'd like better kicks, but we can cover them better."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on the team's poise late in the game) 11/9/04
"I think we have a team that plays calm, and we've been in a lot of those situations. We generally do what we're supposed to do in those times, and that's what gets you by. Defensively, we have to get that going. We have some young guys that are still pressing a little bit, but they're doing that all of the time, not just in the critical times. So, I think that will come as well. Basically, our veteran guys set the tone and they realize it's a matter of staying relaxed and doing what you're supposed to do, not feeling like you have to do anything extra special, but just execute the plan at that point."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on if he assesses the first half of the season) 11/9/04
"No, it's really that we're starting the real season in my mind. We've gotten to 5-3, it's not where we wanted to be and obviously the Jacksonvillegame, a home game that you had the lead, that hurts. But there's nothing you can do about that at this point. We're in position to do what we need to do. We can still win our division. The second half is going to determine things, and I felt that this was going to be a tough stretch. Everybody looked at the opening stretch, but I saw this when the schedule came out—four games in 17 days. Not many teams have to do that. And we'll kind of see where we are and how we're set up for the stretch run. So, we have to put the hammer down these next three weeks, and then we'll get some time off after that Thanksgiving Day game (at Detroit). But, we'll know where we are at that point; whether we're in position to make a run or not. So, I think our season is starting right now."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on if he is still able to appreciate what QB-Peyton Manning is able to do) 11/9/04
"I do, because I know what we're doing and how the game plan is and what he has to do in terms of the checks and everything…the accuracy, and throwing the ball and getting it to the right people. He's had a phenomenal year, he really has. He's done a lot of the things we've talked about. We've been very, very good when we've gotten in scoring position. Other than the Jacksonville game when Marvin (Harrison) stepped out of bounds, we've pretty much scored touchdowns every time we've been inside the 25 for the last month-and-a-half. You do, you can take it for granted if you're not careful."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on the fumble on the first play of the game) 11/9/04
"It was a little hard for me to believe that the ball could be on the ground that long and we couldn't come up with it. But that's how it goes, and it ended up, we forced them to punt from deep and we scored anyway. But that's something we work on, when the ball is on the ground, that you want to get them. We had a lot of chances at that one."
