TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH LOVIE SMITH
(Opening statement)
"1-5 says we're not a good football team, and we're not a good football team. It's kind of as simple as that. Starting the game off, control action of course in the first half, whether they were running the ball, passing the ball – defensively, we didn't get anything done. Of course, the plan is to stop them right away and give our offense a chance. Early on in the first half, the same thing goes for the offense [not getting anything done]. We're not a good football team. We're weren't able to get anything going to match some of their drives early on. So it's total domination on their part. By us, we understand it's a home game and we didn't play well in front of our home fans but, for our sake, we're a better football team than that. I thought we would play better. Of course that goes to the head coach. There's been a couple weeks where we really haven't played our best ball. We had a few injuries in some keys spots that hurt us a little bit, but it shouldn't have been that type of game. Injury-wise, of course, we didn't have much. We had a few guys that went down earlier on but they were able to come back. I'll take your questions."
(On a deficiency in talent or trouble learning the scheme being the blame for the losses)
"Well, I think it's probably a combination of both. We have to look at it that way. First off, it starts with us. What you see is what you coach. So for us, we have to do a better job of coaching up what we have. And then, talent-wise, again, it's becoming a habit a little bit now. It's happened too many times, so we do have to make improvements and look at our roster, and any other. We have a week. The good part about it is we have a bye week coming up. We have a little bit of time to see what direction we need to go. But, of course, we need to change course."
(On the the long passes down the field by Baltimore)
"There is only so much you can do. You can roll up and double cover, or whether it's three quarters or man, it's the same thing, you are one-on-one on the outside. But, we knew going in that that would be tough duty. We need to do some other things better like stopping the run on that first drive and letting them get momentum. And then, offensively, matching that. So, yeah, that was the case but we need to be strong in other areas."
(On the lack of pressure on the quarterback)
"It's disappointing. Some of it was play-action and we allowed them to get the run going. That's what hurt us as much as anything. Those kind of things show up a little bit, if you can get the opponent into a passing game, and we were unable to do that."
(On what he saw in today's loss)
"Can't explain what happened today. I'm going on what I've seen in practice, how we played last week, how we played the week before and then how we did in practice. With that said, we're getting better. Today, we didn't take a step forward."
(On games starting slowly for the offense)
"When we become a good football team, if you do have a slow first series, it doesn't have to be a slow first half. You have to just stop the bleeding a little bit, if you bleed early. So, yes, for whatever reason we haven't been able to get off offensively. But then again, defensively we did get off to a good start against Pittsburgh, when we got a takeaway. We were at least able to get them, in the first series, off the field. It all goes together. If I could think of anything positive, right off the top of my head, it's how we started the second half of scoring the first three times we had the ball. That part is good and that's what I picture us being always."
(On the possibility of trying onside kicks)
"We thought about everything. I don't know how much [onside kicks] would have done. Right now, since we didn't do it, yeah, I could see that. We tried just about everything we thought would really give us an opportunity."
(On changing the defensive scheme over the bye week)
"Absolutely not. I'll stop you right there. Absolutely not. We're not changing our scheme. I've been doing this scheme every year I've been in the league. I believe in it. We're not coaching it and we're not playing it as well as we need to. Zero chance we change our scheme."
(On if he is surprised by the team's results on the field)
"Yes, I am, but we're not giving excuses for why we're playing - we're not as talented as we need to be in some areas and sometimes you can pick on that a little bit. But at the same time, the areas where we are talented and we have good football players, it's all kind of snowballing a little bit. We're taking our moments to not play our best ball. So it's a combination of all of that. It starts with coaching, it start with how we're playing, but you don't stop course. We have been very disappointed in two football games that we've played where we just haven't looked like ourselves. Besides that, there's still good things when looking at the overall picture. And as we go into the bye week, that's what we're going to do. We're going to evaluate the overall picture on where we are and not just think and make drastic changes just less than hour after the game, a disappointing loss."
(On evaluating himself)
"That's pretty easy. I'd say I've performed at a one and five record. That's my record as a head football coach, so it's cut and dry - it's black and white on what we've done and what I've done as a head football coach."
(On the challenge of speaking to the team at halftime)
"Of course there's a challenge issue to start the second half. Can't do much about the first half, but we can play our best ball and play good football the second half by starting fast in the second half, which we were able to do for the most part. When you're down 38-0, you just want to see how you respond. We've been in that situation before. I wanted to see if we would respond better this time around, in the second half."
(On not getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers)
"First off, to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers you have to sustain drives: converting on third downs and protecting a little better and being able to run the football a little better. So yeah, that's the plan. Of course you want to distribute the ball around, but you need plays to do that. Again, you have to have drives to be able to do that and we weren't able to do that today."
QUARTERBACK MIKE GLENNON
(On the Buccaneers offensive line)
"The Ravens have a great defense, first of all. Our offensive line has done great all year. The two weeks that I have played – against Pittsburgh and against New Orleans – we gave up one sack each game and those teams are ones that have pro bowlers all over the place. Obviously, we didn't play as well today, but we have a really good offensive line. The bottom line is that the Ravens played better than us and there is nothing else really to say. They out-executed us; they out-played us and obviously the score showed it."
(On what was going through his mind when the score was 28-0)
"Flashbacks of the Atlanta game, but the good thing to take away is we didn't give up and we kept fighting until the end. Twenty-eight to nothing is not where we want to be and we've got a lot of work to do to get better."
(On Coach Smith's message to the team at halftime)
"[Lovie Smith] just said, 'This is going to show who we are, if we're going to fight back or just lay down and give up.' We did fight back, but obviously it was too late to get a second chance."
(On comparing the loss against Baltimore to the loss against Atlanta)
"They're both terrible. I wouldn't say one is worse than the other, but they're both obviously not where we want to be. They're both not acceptable for this program to get to where we want to get to."
(On mentally recovering heading into a bye week)
"It's a time where we want to get healthy and get guys back. We'll watch the film and learn from it. We have a couple extra practices to get better, but we have to find out what we need to do to get the win. You know, we'll have extra time to do that. We're not going to give up. We're going to stay with it. We still have a good football team, but we just need to play better. It's the bottom line."
(On the starting quarterback position)
"That's coach's decision and that's that."
(On the difference between the first quarter and the second half)
"I mean – things were just more open [in the second half]. We played better, I played better, the line played better and the receivers played better. We just completely got out-played in that first quarter from the offense, the defense, everything. We eventually started getting going, but like I said, it was way too late. Coverage softened up when they had such a big lead. They were protecting themselves."
(On the cause of slow starts)
"We're trying to figure it out, but we still haven't because this is another week where we've come out slow. We'll continue to try to figure out why and what we need to do to play better coming out of the gates. I think if I knew the answer, we would be playing better now in the first quarter. We're still trying to figure that out so hopefully when we come out of this bye week we will be better starting out."
(On the inconsistency in the team's play this season)
"Again, it's hard to put a finger on what is causing the inconsistency because [versus] Pittsburgh we played well and in New Orleans we played well even though we didn't come out with a win. This week and in Atlanta were exact opposites. I don't have an answer for that right now, but that's what we will use the bye week to figure out."
(On whether the bye week is coming at a good or bad time)
"There are probably pros and cons to both. As a player, we'd like to get back out there and play again next weekend, but the bye week also gets us healthy and gets us fresh and gives us time to work on the things we need to work on. There are pros and cons to both."
(On his reaction to the Buccaneers' 38-point halftime deficit as the largest for a home team in NFL history)
"I didn't know that stat, but it's not where I want to be by any means. This is a bad loss and we never want to be on that end of history. It's not a good feeling, but there's still a long season ahead of us so we'll learn and get better."
LINEBACKER LAVONTE DAVID
(On what the Ravens did well in the first half)
"Execute. There wasn't any tricky stuff. Their offense just played better than our defense."
(On how much of a factor the lack of offense played on the defense)
"No, as a defensive player you love to get back out there. You've got to have that mentality, you can't worry about what happens on the offense. We have to get on the field and handle our business. At the end of the day, the scoreboard didn't show it."
(On what to take away from this game)
"At the end of the day it is all about pride. It's game day; you gotta have a fight, and today we didn't have that fight. We started out flat. Defensively, we gave up big plays and they came out ready. As a road team, you want to come out fast and that's what they did. We didn't live up to what we wanted to do."
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WIDE RECEIVER MIKE EVANS
(On the team's mindset starting the second half)
"The main thing is you just keep fighting until the end. Anything can happen. At the half, we got the ball [to start the second] half, so anything could've happened. You just keep fighting."
(On if it is good or bad that this next week is the team's bye week)
"Good. Good and bad. Everybody [can] get healthy, come back and prepare to beat Minnesota."
(On why Baltimore was able to get off to such a great start)
"They played a great game. We didn't play as well. They started fast and we started slow. We were in the hole early, had to fight back – they just played better than us."
(On how his injured groin feels)
"It feels good, real good. No setbacks."
(On if it felt good to get back out there after missing last week with an injury)
"Absolutely. It would've hurt me if I didn't play this week. Hopefully after the bye week it heals everybody, we come back 100 percent and beat Minnesota."
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WIDE RECEIVER LOUIS MURPHY
(On what the Buccaneers struggled with in the first half)
"They just came out [fast] and we started off really slow. It was tough to fight back after a 21-point deficit in the first quarter, I think it was 28 to zero. We turned the ball over versus a cover-zero blitz on the interception. We just kind of got behind the eight ball and it was kind of a snowball effect."
(On if the first half seemed like nothing good was happening for the Buccaneers)
"Exactly, that's exactly what happened. We couldn't get anything going offensively. We put the defense in a bad situation. I think they got the ball four times on the plus side of the 50. You tell your defense to come out and play against that, that's tough. We didn't help them out at all. "
(On what the offense did better in the second half than the first half)
"I just think we just went out and just said we're going to make plays. We're just going to try and come out and just air it out. I think that's what we did. We were able to score on three straight possessions. I think we won the second half, compared. We still lost, we're not into moral victories, but you have to look towards something in this tough loss."
(On how the team responds going into the bye week)
"I think we'll have a lot of players back, especially after this bye week, so it comes at a good time for us. We just need to come back and prepare for Minnesota."
TIGHT END AUSTIN SEFERIAN-JENKINS
(On the reasons for offensive struggles early in the game)
"I really don't know. That's a better question to ask the offensive coaches or something like that. I don't have anything. We're working hard, the coaches are working hard, everybody is working hard."
(On how he feels about being on the losing end of lopsided losses)
"No one likes to lose. I mean, people don't like to come watch people lose. People don't like to play and lose. It sucks. Especially when you know everyone is working hard. Everyone in here is working really hard."
(On his feelings heading into the bye week)
"We're one and five. We have a bye week. We still have a lot of the season to go. There's still a lot of the football to be played. Unfortunately, we're upset now. We're a little down where we're at, but the good thing about the NFL is that there is a lot of football to be played and we still have a good chance to do something special this year. It's frustrating right now, as it should be, but we still have a great opportunity to do some good things this year."
(On how the offense responds when facing a large deficit)
"Well, we're professionals, so professionals keep working hard, they keep plugging away. They keep doing something until someone makes plays and that's all you can do. No one in here shriveled up and hid or anything like that. We kept going at them. Unfortunately, it didn't work out in the way we wanted to but we kept plugging away, we kept working hard, no one gave up, and everyone was doing the best they could."
CORNERBACK ALTERRAUN VERNER
(On where things went wrong)
"It's always hard to evaluate myself after the game, but it just seemed like we couldn't make a play to get off the field or do anything. They ran the ball, they threw the ball, Flacco could do everything he wanted. Today shows us that there is a lot of self-evaluation that you gotta do, deep down looking into, because, like you said, it seemed like nobody was immune. Everybody did a little something, myself included, and so you just gotta press on and that's all you can do."
(On the upcoming bye week)
"First and foremost we have to get healthy. We definitely have had our share of injuries inesefirst six games, so most importantly people have to get healthy because we are going to need them for the long haul. And like I said, just thinking about what you can do to get better and help this team out. It could be little things like spending more time in the film room, or going harder in practice, so this is the time to reflect but also get away and clear your mind and know that right when we get back we got to focus in and we got to win some ball games."
(On the feeling on the sidelines following Baltimore's quick start)
"The sense was that we still had a lot of football left. They jumped out and even though it was a 28-point lead in the first quarter, just saying that there was still so much football left and that we have to go out there and make something happen. We didn't, although we knew as a defense at that point we had to get some type of turnover and we had to do something to get the short field for the offense and make it so that they don't have to go the long haul. We just weren't able to do that."
