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A couple of general thoughts on the game. I thought that overall when you have four fumbles, nine penalties and a blocked punt, that's going to make it hard to win in this league. We made too many mistakes tonight to win the game. I thought there were some positive aspects of the game. They were overridden by the fact that we had some poor plays and some very costly individual plays at the wrong times. That led to either our lack of scoring points or it contributed to giving up a lot of them. It was an unusual game in that there were some plays on both sides that resulted in big plays or touchdowns probably not in the way anyone would have designed them. It's a football game and that's the way the ball bounces, they got one and we got a couple. Ty (Law) left the game early in the second quarter. He had a cramp in his leg. I don't think that will be anything major. We had a couple little bumps and bruises but nothing significant to report there. We'll have an update on that later in the week.
I thought we had some positive things going offensively. We kind of stopped ourselves when we put ourselves in some bad situations, particularly penalties in the first half. We had a couple in the first half, a couple in the second half and obviously the turnovers, but at times we showed the ability to move the ball. But we need to be more consistent.
Q: Can you talk about the play of Kevin Faulk?
B: Kevin has had good production in all of the pre-season games. He's certainly shown an ability to, in the San Francisco game, he scored right before the half, showed the ability to make some yards on his own, do some things. I think the question with Kevin is going to come down to this, is he going to become an every down player or is he going to come in, like he did today, and be more of a third down back and some sub situations. He's had a good preseason and a good camp.
Q: Are you looking at him as the number one running back in that spot.
B: Well, like I just said, I think the question with Kevin is how much? Would he be effective if he went in as a regular back or as a change of pace player, or both, like he has been in training camp. We'll make the decision based on what is best for the team.
Q: Can you talk about the situation with Damien Woody, Jason Andersen and the shotgun snap situation?
B: It was something we looked at this week. We were looking at different options, whether to be in the shot-gun or not. Jason has a very good handle on the shot-gun snap, Jason's also an experienced center previously, although he hasn't played a lot of center this camp because he has been playing guard and tackle. And Damien has primarily been playing center. This has been another chance to give him a little work in there but also take a look at that combination, a little shot-gun. Now's the time to take a look at those things and we'll decide what the best way to go is.
Q: Do you have enough time to prepare for the next game in only four days?
B: We don't have any choice. They are not going to reschedule any games so we'll have to be ready when the season opens. That's our challenge to be ready. We'll do what we can with the opportunities, there are definitely some positive signs and there are some things that are moving along. There are some other things. . . it's clear, anytime you have that many mistakes, it's going to be hard to overcome, especially against a good team like Tampa Bay. We just gave them some points and we are not going to be able to do that with any team.
Q: How do you think the offense played?
B: I think the offense played with more crispness, more sharpness, particularly the first group, than we have in the other games. I think we are making some progress there.
Q: Was it your intention to use Michael Bishop for the entire second half?
B: I thought the first offense got a good dose of playing time in the first half. We saw things that we wanted to see them do, so we wanted to see the other people play. We still have a lot of evaluating left do in terms of roster spots and how players are going to fulfil different roles for our team. It gave us a chance to take a little bit longer look at that and against good competition too. I think we found out some things from that. We played against good competition too. Those guys, we wanted them to get in a little bit earlier so they would be playing against either front line people or quality second group guys so we can get a better look at that kind of competition.
Q: Coach Weis was on the sideline instead of being upstairs, what is the motivation behind that?
B: Preseason, we worked the combination the other way, so we wanted to take a look at things this way and see how that operated. There are some advantages and disadvantages. Of course, being up and down as a former coordinator, I've handled a lot of games from both spots. It just depends sometimes on all of the people you are working with. The other people on the coaching staff, the players. And just how the whole thing fits together. We want to take a look at it and see if the advantages to doing it this way outweigh the advantages of being upstairs.
Q: How do you feel defensively of your performance?
B: I thought the defense played inconsistently. We had a couple of plays that shouldn't have been that big of a problem that were. At times we were okay, but third down could have been better. Overall there were some positives, but there were some things we need to improve on too.
Q: What do you need to improve on?
B: Third down, it was right there. We didn't force a lot of turnovers on defense. We got one ball out there and returned it for a touchdown. Tampa was able to force a lot more turnovers on defense than we were. Some of that is just giving the ball away, some of it is just forcing it. We need to force more.
Q: How much of the offensive game planning was shown to them?
B: I don't know, I can't give you a percentage. Obviously, everything we called, we knew we were calling. There were a lot of things that Tampa did that we've seen before and we did that they've seen before. There are probably some things that were new on both sides and for whatever the reasons for doing it, there was a reason behind it. I'd say it was a little bit of a cat and mouse game on things you want to show and things you don't want to show and what they lead to and what they really don't. We'll see how that unfolds in two weeks.
Q: Are there guys that bought themselves a little more time?
B: Possibly, I think that we'll have to look at the tape tomorrow. It's hard when you are standing on the sidelines during the game to try and evaluate everybody. Particularly some of the guys that are playing for roster spots, special teams is a key area. How they did in that area I'm sure will determine what role they will play for us this year, if any at all. That's something we'll have to take a closer look at as well. See how they can be on offense or defense or as back up, a position player or whatever. We'll watch the film on that and see if some guys helped themselves and maybe some of them didn't.
