Quotes from the Bucs winning locker room, courtesy of AM 1340 WTAN’s Big Ed following the Bucs 16-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Ronde Barber
Q- What do you think of the win?
Barber-“It doesn’t matter what it looks like. [Josh] Freeman came in and said it was an ugly win, but we don’t care. A ‘W’ against these guys, division opponents, is huge. We’re championship searching and we got to beat these guys. We had the same situation last year twice – fourth and one. They did us a favor at the end.”
Q-The defense had some success today huh?
Barber- “We played a lot of man against them today. We’re familiar with what they do, their routes. We felt like we had played these guys close all last year and the year before –we just didn’t find a way to win. This time, we put it on our back end to go win the one-on-one matchup and we did. The one deep ball to Julio [Jones] was miscommunication – not clean feet – we’ll take that. We had a bunch of red zone stands.”
Q-The team seems confident, is it?
Barber- “This team never lacks in confidence. We have enough boisterous personalities to stay on top regardless. But this is huge for us. This team was a thorn in our side. They’re a good football team. They find ways to win games just like this. I’ve seen Matt Ryan come back and win too many games like that. It’s a credit to our offense holding the ball all of the third quarter, basically, and a huge credit to our defense getting off the field when we needed to.”
T Donald Penn
Q What do you guys need to do to improve?
Penn- “We got to do better. Too many red zone [visits] coming out with three [points]. You got to get seven, you know, so we got to improve on that and we got to start finishing off our drives. We had that long nine-minute drive, but came out with nothing. We got to start finishing off our drives. We have stuff we [can] build on. I thought we came out and started faster than we usually [do].”
Q How do you feel the defense performed?
Penn- “Our defense stepped it up when we needed it. My hat is off to that defense. Our defense is getting better and better every week and it’s making it easy on us.”
Q What do you have to say about this win?
Penn- “Bucs offense is running the ball, setting up play action. That’s what we did, and when we do that we are a deadly team. I wish we could have had some of those drives back so we could finish, maybe get touchdowns on them. We could have blown these guys out if we would have scored touchdowns on those drives. I’m taking this win, I’m happy. It’s been five times, five long times, since we’ve beaten them. I’m going to take this one.”
WR Mike Williams
Tell us about the draw offsides?
Mike- “Freeman [was] like ‘we are going to bring him in motion. I’m going to do everything I can to get them off sides.’ And he did it. The play of the game was a no play.”
Josh is pretty mobile for a guy of his size huh?
Mike- “I kind of expect it. You go out there and you just expect it. You know what he is going to do. You know Free is going to run for the first down if he can run. He is going to stiff arm the guy to the ground to get the pass off if he can. I kind of expect it from him now.”
How does the win feel?
Mike- “It feels good. To go out there and beat a team in your division feels great. Especially Atlanta; they’ve had our number the last few times we played them. To go out there and beat them feels good.”
LB Mason Foster
Tell us about the strong start today…
Foster- “[In the] past two weeks, we came out and started a little slow. This time we came out ready to go. Came out on top of everything, playing hard, everybody was fired up the whole entire game and I feel like it showed.”
Talk about the win?
Foster-“It went well. We had a great game plan. We got great coaches, like I said throughout the week. We just made our plays when we had to. Coaches put guys in the right situation, and you know [the defense] made their plays. When you stand up and make plays on third down […], you win games.”
Are you getting comfortable with the defense?
Foster- “I’m still learning, but at the same time I feel more comfortable in controlling the defense and making the checks, making the adjustments. It’s good to get out there.”
DE Adrian Clayborn
Bucs started strong today huh?
Clayborn- “[In the] past two weeks, we came out and started a little slow. This time we came out ready to go. Came out on top of everything, playing hard, everybody was fired up the whole entire game and I feel like it showed.”
It was a nice win today huh?
Clayborn-“It went well. We had a great game plan. We got great coaches, like I said throughout the week. We just made our plays when we had to. Coaches put guys in the right situation, and you know [the defense] made their plays. When you stand up and make plays on third down […], you win games.”
Seems like you too are getting comfortable in the defense?
Clayborn- “I’m still learning, but at the same time I feel more comfortable in controlling the defense and making the checks, making the adjustments. It’s good to get out there.”
LeGarrette Blount
Tell us about the four minute offense at the end of the game…
Blount- “It felt awesome. Just being able to run our four-minute offense knowing that we’re able to keep the ball out of their hands. They have some playmakers over there and they have some ability to make some plays in these kinds of situations. Knowing that we have control of the game, the games in our hands with four minutes left, we’re going to continue to do what we do- keep the ball in my hands and pound the rock.”
The defense controlled the offense today huh?
Blount- “No, it’s just how the game played out. We came in with the mindset that we’re going to come in and win the game. That’s how we feel about any game. Going in to today’s game knowing that they’re going to have a tough defense and we’re going to have a tough defense, now it’s just what offense can score the most points and what defense can hold the other offense to the least. “
How does it feel to beat the Falcons?
Blount- “It’s just another game. It was just as important as the last game. Now we’ve got to move forward. With the way things played out, we’ve put ourselves in a good position to do some pretty good things this year.”
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