HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (opening comments)
"We talked at our last team meeting about the importance of this game. It's an AFC South game, home game for us, and it's one that we have to come out and play well. I don't think, again, there will be a lot of secrets or a lot of trickery. One team is going to execute better than the other. That's what we've worked on all week, just sharpening up our execution, and hopefully we will come out and play well."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on DTs Keyunta Dawson and Daniel Muir)
"Daniel Muir is doing better. He feels like he's getting closer and closer to being ready to go. Keyunta may have a chance to play. He's maintained all week that he's going to be able to play. We're going to let him take some shots in practice (Friday) and see how he does. It looks more promising (Friday) than it did (Thursday)."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on DB-Matt Giordano)
"He just has back spasms. We're hopeful that he's going to be ready to go, but we'll see how he is at practice, also."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the toughest job in football)
"There are physical and mental challenges. A lot of those jobs on special teams are not easy. Being an effective gunner, there aren't many people that can do that. Nose tackle in the 3-4 (formation) is a tough job and very, very difficult, but I guess most jobs on the field are tough.
"I haven't played nose (tackle), so I don't know. I have played gunner, and I know how tough that is, or if you're one of those guys being targeted on special teams – punt returner, making good decisions and trying to make things happen with a lot of guys barreling on you. There are probably not a lot of easy jobs out there."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the nose tackle position)
"Even the nose for us is much easier than a 3-4 nose, where you're getting double-teamed and you don't have much leeway in there. Everything is a little different. He gets double-teamed, but we're trying to get him free, trying to get the linebackers ahead so people have to come off him. In some 3-4's, they encourage the double teams to keep the linebackers free. It just depends. Probably, the better you are at whatever job you do, the tougher it is because you get more attention."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if they have shown any interest in FA S-John Lynch)
"We have not talked to him. We probably don't have the money room to fit John in, but John's a good player. He could definitely help us."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if the stretch play is not being used because of QB-Peyton Manning's knee surgery during the off-season)
"Yes, and him not being here at practice. Although, the stretch play could make a return this week or next week. We have practiced it a little bit more. We're getting timing down to make sure we can make that handoff, and you might see it resurface this week."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if not running the stretch play is hurting play-action)
"We've lost a little bit off the play-action, but what's hurt our play-action more than anything is not running effectively. When we get those runs going, the play-action will come."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on his reaction to the Ed Hochuli situation)
"I think we're all disappointed when you see a missed call, but I make bad calls. I wish I could not run fake punts again. It happens and you have to overcome it. It's part of the game. For us to try to fix everything and say, 'We should pass a new rule,' and, 'Isn't this too bad,' and, 'Let's have a convention of the competition committee and see if we can fix it.' It's a bad call. The whistle blew. It happens. You have to get over it and win the game. I think we spent way too much time on it. Ed Hochuli is a good official. He's not the first official that's made a bad call. If (San Diego) had stopped either the 4th-down play or the two-point conversion, it would be old news now. It is tough when you lose a game with a bad call. We all feel bad, but it happens. It's part of the game and to think we can eliminate every one, it doesn't work that way."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if it helps when an official admits he messed up)
"I think you appreciate that as a coach. You know it. You watch the tape and you know it was a bad call. The whole country knows it was a bad call. It's just like dropping a ball. If a receiver drops a ball and can say, 'Oh, if I would have caught the ball we would have won the game.' What are you going to do?"
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on Hochuli taking so much heat for his call)
"Well, it's the last play and that type of thing. It happens. No one likes to see it happen. It's an unfortunate part of the game, but to think we can eliminate it or somehow we are going to get perfect officiating or perfect play-calling or perfect tackling, it's not going to happen."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if the replay machine malfunctioning earlier in the San Diego-Denver game is a bigger problem than the missed call at the end)
"I don't know exactly what happened on that, and I don't know how you fix that. But, again, that happens, too. Sometimes you don't have a good angle on something. The next day the scoreboard has a better angle than the TV has. Replay is not a perfect system. We're not going to fix every call. We're not going to get every one right. You have to have the mindset that you're going to overcome that. When they happen in playoff games or big games, or they happen late in the game like that or on 4th down, it happens.
"I had forgotten about the (Tampa Bay WR) Bert Emmanuel call (when replay officials overturned his catch with :47 left in the 1999 NFC Championship Game vs. St. Louis). It just happens. We had a lot of other chances to stop them. We had a chance to stop them on a 3rd-down play. We had a chance to make a first down on the next play (after the catch was overturned). So, to sit and think for 15 years, 'Oh if we hadn't gotten that call…' That's football."
