Tony Dungy has high hopes for QB Shaun King
Discussing the Buccaneers' November 14 game with Kansas City on Saturday, November 13, Head Coach Tony Dungy addressed the following topics:
Ronde Barber's availability:
"Ronde practiced on Friday and went through the walk-through today, but it's still going to be a game-time decision. There's a good chance that Brian Kelly will start (at RCB) and Ronde will play nickelback. Ronde seems like he's almost 100%."
John Lynch:
"We'll use him in pretty much the same way (as the team did against New Orleans last week). We anticipate that they'll come at us with the same type of big-back attack that the Saints did, and we have to take that away. Of course, we can't totally live in the eight-man front, but we'd like to be there when they're running the ball. We don't want to let their big backs get going, falling forward, getting into short second and third downs."
Kansas City's passing tendencies:
"They have two guys they key on. They like to try to get the ball deep to (Derrick) Alexander, and in the red zone, they look for (tight end) Tony Gonzalez a lot."
The importance of Sunday's game:
"If we win it, we have a lot of confidence for the second half of the year. We think we can get back in it (the NFC Central race). We're two games behind, but they all have to come down here. If we fall three games behind, it may not matter."
Trent Dilfer's status:
"He's the number one right now. You open up Pandora's Box when you make a change like we did…so many things can happen. I don't like the situation. Trent is our number one until he doesn't give us the best chance to win."
Jacquez Green's increased role in the offense:
"He's been starting with Bert (Emanuel) and Karl (Williams) out, but I don't know how long we'll be able to continue to do that. He has the ability to get open against single coverage, which happens when teams stack the box against our running game."
Todd Washington:
"He did a good job (subbing at left guard against New Orleans). We'll probably give Jorge Diaz a spell sometime during the game, and Todd will come in again. Todd has actually played better at guard than Kevin Dogins, but Dogins is still looking better at center. With Tony (Mayberry) banged up, Kevin would come in at center if necessary."
Warren Sapp's two sackless weeks:
"He's had some good rushes, but hasn't had the luck to get the numbers. He's still playing well. It's not like the Chiefs are going to forget about him. That would be like us telling Derrick Thomas, 'Just go ahead and rush our quarterback.'"
Shaun King:
"Shaun is going to be fantastic. You watch him, and you don't even know why, you don't know what you're basing it on. He played four quarters in the pre-season and the offense scored five touchdowns. He knows what he's doing, but even when he doesn't know, he gets the job done. In practice, he'll mess up a play and throw to the wrong guy, and get a touchdown. He's a lot like Charlie Batch…he's not going to get rattled, he's very composed."
