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HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments) Monday, October 29, 2007
"We made it through (the Carolina) game and kind of had to weather the emotional storm we thought we would get early in the first quarter. They came out and played really well, had a good plan for us in terms of their offense. We had that long drive and then had a couple of three-and-outs on our offense. So, it was not the way we wanted to start, but I thought our team did a good job of keeping their poise. We made a few little adjustments and got going. Antoine Bethea's interception really changed the game, took it from where it could have been 10-3 or 14-3 and gave us the chance to get the lead. Once we went in at halftime, really zeroed in on what we wanted to do, and got going offensively, our second half was pretty good. But it was a tough game. It's a tough thing to do and I was proud of our guys coming through that, having those two road games in six days. They did a good job coming off of it. So, a good win. A lot of guys played well, Reggie Wayne obviously, and Joseph Addai got us going offensively. I thought our protection was good for the most part, which was again, something we said we needed to do. And defensively, we had a lot of guys step up. I thought our linebacker corps probably played their best game of the year. It was Rocky Boiman and Tyjuan Hagler really playing well against the running game. Gary Brackett had a lot of big plays for us and just showed up all over the field. It was a good win for us and kept us in front in our division, which is what we're hoping to do."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if there was an update on injuries) Monday, October 29, 2007
"We don't really, yet. That's one of the reasons that we did sit out a couple of guys, hoping they would get back and practice this week. We gave the players off today, so I haven't really seen anybody. We'll have our medical meeting tonight. We didn't have too many things go on in the course of the game. We'll know a little bit more tomorrow."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on having been through the media hype before and if he thinks it will help being used to it) Monday, October 29, 2007
"I think it will probably help both teams. They have obviously been through three Super Bowl runs and been a high-profile team for the last, maybe six years now. We've had it for a couple of years and going to the Super Bowl, so I think both teams are going to handle it as well as you can. The thing we have to understand, it's a regular season game. It's a big game. Driving in today, I heard it's the first time that it's happened in NFL history, to have undefeated teams this late, and two high-profile teams. But it's still a regular-season game. What it will prove is who's the best team on November 4. But we've been through that where that doesn't guarantee you anything. We beat those guys a couple of years ago on a Monday night up there. People wanted to give us the title and we didn't win it. San Diego, I heard how they were the most talented team last year and they won some big games, and they didn't win it. It's going to be fun, I think it's going to be good for the league, I think it's going to be good for football, and you're going to see two very good teams playing, but it's a regular season game."
