Between the end of last Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans and kickoff this coming Sunday in the Louisiana Superdome, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had time to break down their Week One game tape, devise a game plan for the New Orleans Saints and hone their plays on the practice field. They also found plenty of time to discuss the week's most pressing topics, from Jameis Winston's late-night film study after Sunday's loss to the need to stop the Saints' rushing attack in order to then focus on rushing Drew Brees.
Here are the top 10 things we heard from Buccaneers players and coaches in Week Two of the 2015 season:
- "I don't think we were physical enough. I think we didn't execute our defense better than they executed their offense. I think a fire wasn't there. We kind of let that first play, that penalty, knock us off our momentum so we let that get to us. We've got to look past that and keep going. First game of the season didn't turn out as we expected. Luckily, we got what – 15 more games left? So we look forward to that and now we get started for New Orleans, get ready for New Orleans. Division opponent, will be a tough, another hard-fought football game for us and [we are] ready to get up there and fight our butts off."- LB Lavonte David on the defense's performance in the opener and how to make it better for Game Two
- "I stayed up [until] probably about 2 o'clock, just trying to see what went wrong. I was trying to get every excuse just to put that one behind me – it hurt. But at the end of the day, the sun did rise again the next day and I was back out there playing football."- Rookie QB Jameis Winston on how he reacted to the team's loss in his first regular-season start
- "I didn't see anything that we can't correct, I should answer the question like that. [The Titans] played well, but a lot of times – not a lot of times, always – it starts with you, and us, in this case. There are things that we can execute a lot better, from me down. When you go through something like this, it's good to see that everybody sees it that way too, that we can [improve]. But the way you do that is not talking, it's [to] get back out there and start working on it and that's what we did. We got better today, which we needed to." - Head Coach Lovie Smith on fixing the issues that contributed to the Week One loss
- "Jon Embree, our tight end coach, said in our staff meeting that it was the best game that Austin has played in his two years here. I wasn't here last year, but Austin looked like he was moving towards the type of player that we all want him to be – a second round pick, a tight end. He had three explosive plays in the game, he had two touchdowns, he was able to win against one-on-one coverage, made a beautiful catch on a tipped ball. Austin was one of those guys that I mentioned that we need more guys to elevate to that level to be successful."- Offensive Coordinator Dirk Koetter on the strong play of second-year TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins in the season opener
- "They played well. They're progressing and they're getting better. [Like] my first year, the first game, you get the first-game jitters out of your system. We're going to do a lot better as an offense as a whole, in execution. I can't wait to see what we're going to do down the line."- RB Doug Martin on the performance of rookie starters Donovan Smith and Ali Marpet on the offensive line
5."They're more physical. They're longer, it's harder to get off their jams, but I like going against physical guys. I'm a physical guy myself. If I play, it will be a fun matchup. I think it plays to my favor, more physical guys. The ref will let us play more, hopefully, so I like going against bigger guys."- WR Mike Evans, who is questionable for Sunday's game, on potentially going up against taller cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Delvin Breaux
- "This is the NFL and anybody they put out there I'm sure they have confidence in. Those guys are out there for a reason. They are going to be good players. We're going to go out there, we're going to respect everybody that lines up. We have a job to do and our biggest focus is – I think it always has been – is not worrying so much about what's over there and focus [on] executing, doing our job on our side and if we do that and if we play sound ball we'll be just fine."- WR Vincent Jackson on that same Saints' secondary potentially being vulnerable due to injuries
- "As long as you trust the process of how we teach the silent count it's not bad. If you are more worried about trying to get off the ball and stuff like that and you're not really tuned in to it, yeah it can be hard. The teams that practice it are good at it, it's not something that affects them. It comes down to making sure everybody is communicating. It is loud and you need to get all that stuff squared away. As long as everybody is on the same page – because it's going to be hard to hear so we all need to talk to each other."- C Evan Smith on preparing to deal with the crowd noise in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome
- "It starts with stopping the run. We think we have some guys who can rush the passer, but when you don't stop the run you get what we got on Sunday. The quarterback threw the ball 16 times, 16 times. That's not the ingredient for success the way we are set up. We have to do a much better job against the run. I mentioned to our players this morning, New Orleans Saints, they are going to feel good about running the football. We better figure out a way to get this fixed. As well as they can throw it, we all know they are more than capable of running it. They'd like to be able to run. We got to get that addressed. Everything else will fall into place when we get that addressed."- Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier on if getting an early pass-rush on QB Drew Brees is the key to defensive success Sunday
- "Same way he's prepared every day he's been here. Sometimes you can be doing everything the right way, preparing the right way, trying to do things the right way and it just doesn't turn out the right way. It's no more than that, but you don't change up what you've been doing. You do it better and that's all we've done right now. One game into [the season]. In baseball they let you strike twice at least and most of the time three times, right? We struck out one time. No more than that. We are going to keep doing what we do. We're going to do it better this week and get a win."- Head Coach Lovie Smith, at the end of the week, on how QB Jameis Winston prepared for his second game