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HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"Our players seem to be in pretty good health and good spirits, and we are looking forward to starting this practice week. It's a day shorter for us, but I think our task is much the same. Carolina is the same type of team as Jacksonville, very strong running team, a team that has a good front seven on defense that puts a lot of pressure on you. They have good special teams and good returners. So from that standpoint, it's probably the best we could have hoped for. We have the same type of game coming up and the same type of practices, hopefully."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on what is it that makes Steve Smith one of the best receivers in the game) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"What I like about Smith is he can make things happen a lot of ways. Some guys you play, they just catch the ball outside the numbers or they catch deep balls and you feel like if you don't give that guy a deep pass, we're going to be okay. But he runs reverses, he catches the ball over the middle, he catches short balls and turns them into long gains, he can run after the catch. He finds ways to make plays even if you are taking the deep ball from him. I really like him, and he can get it in the return game."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on QB-Vinny Testaverde coming back) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"I'm surprised at that. Vinny (was) my neighbor in Tampa. I just really thought he was going to be at home…Vinny's played well and watching that game, some of the throws that he made and the repoire that he has gotten with the receivers in a week's time was really impressive."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on which QB he thinks will play and how he prepares) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"I really don't know. We're going to watch and see who practices. Their offense really didn't change that much. They run the same plays, they do the same things, so that's what we have to prepare for."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on not overlooking an opponent and if that message comes from him or if his guys have been around long enough to know) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"I think they know it well enough. Some of our young guys may have to learn the lesson, but if you've been in the NFL, you understand it. I give them some history lessons, those kind of things, but for the most part they know that's how we do business around here. You don't really look back, you don't look too far ahead. You try to just take care of business as it comes, and that's the way you get long winning streaks going. That's the way you avoid long losing streaks."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if he has been part of a team that has been upset because it was looking ahead) Wednesday, October 24, 2007
"Not really, not in a long while. But you see it week in, week out and talk about the upsets that happen, you talk about the tough places to go, and what I talk about is you really don't know who's a Super Bowl team and who isn't from one week to another, especially this early in the season. The last time we played these guys (Carolina), people didn't look at them as a Super Bowl team and say, 'Oh, you have
