HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN
(On the injuries)
“Very tough loss for us yesterday. Jermaine Phillips, hate to say it, he fractured his forearm, his right forearm, and it is not the same injury that he hurt earlier. But he will be out for the season. Derrick Brooks has a rib injury that we are very concerned about, we are examining that today. We will update that injury as soon as we get the information. A number of guys, obviously, weren’t able to go yesterday. I am proud of our team and will answer any questions that I can.”
(On DT Jovan Haye)
“We have a number of defensive linemen that are banged up. I think he only played six plays, a handful of plays. Obviously, Chris Hovan did not play. I thought that the guys that did play responded, played hard, Ryan Sims, Jimmy Wilkerson went inside. Hopefully we get some healthy bodies back this week; we are going to need them.”
(On Jermaine Phillips’ injury)
“It is unfortunate. You talk about a great guy, and really a very good football player, one of our leaders. I can’t explain it, very, very unfortunate for us.”
(On LB Derrick Brooks’ status)
“I think so, right now questionable. I can’t say much more until I hear from [Head Athletic Trainer] Todd Toriscelli and our doctors. We are concerned about him. I will remain optimistic because of whom we are talking about, but we have our concerns.”
(On how prepared QB Brian Griese was on Sunday)
“We had prepared Jeff Garcia to play. Jeff took the 90-play walk-through, whatever it was. We have a long extensive walk-through on Wednesday and Thursday, took all the snaps. Neither Luke McCown nor Brian got a heck of a lot of reps, and we prepared Luke McCown to be the backup for the game, in case anything did happen to Jeff and Luke was the backup yesterday. When we found out just prior to the game that Jeff couldn’t go, knowing that neither one of those guys had taken enough snaps to be the starter, we relied on Brian Griese’s experience, having played against Atlanta earlier in the season. But neither one of the guys took a lot of reps, enough reps, to really prepare themselves to be the starter. I thought Brian, who was pushed into service yesterday, did some really good things.”
(On walk-through reps)
“We have a 90 play walk-through, we probably lead the league in reps, which pretty much explains the game plan for the quarterback, a lot of it is for the center and the quarterback, and Jeff took all of those. Jeff took reps on the practice field Thursday, and Luke took some. Brian Griese took some on Friday, not a lot. Neither one of those guys was really prepared to be the starter in the game yesterday. It is just unfortunate that Jeff was a late scratch and that is the way that it went.”
(On QB Jeff Garcia’s status)
“I think he feels better. Hopefully in the next 48 hours he feels a lot better, and can become our starter again, we certainly need him.”
(On if Garcia will start on Sunday)
“We will make that determination on Wednesday; we will make the determation on Wednesday when we get another evaluation of where he is.”
(On his biggest concern for the team at this point)
“We played pretty good in some areas yesterday. The injuries, they are mounting to say the least. The quarterback was a late scratch, the two defensive tackles, and we are already missing some key players. The injuries are a big concern for us. Throw in Jermaine Phillips now, possibly Derrick Brooks, that is the number one concern.”
(On if Brooks took himself out of the game)
“I think the ribs were bothering him. They don’t come any tougher than that guy, and that is some information that we will have to get to you in the next day.”
(On if Griese will start if Garcia can’t go)
“We are going to take a look at where Jeff is today and tomorrow. We will make a decision on that when we hit the practice field on Wednesday. Brian went in there, completed 70 percent of his passes against a pretty darn good opponent on the road. I am sure there are four or five plays in the game that he would like to have back, but I thought he did a good job. We had some terrible field position, some penalties really hurt us, some things that were outside of his control. We will have a quarterback against the Chargers, and we will make that decision on Wednesday.”
(On the penalties)
“We had two in short yardage. One on third-and-one, one on third-and-inches, we had one on third-down and five, I believe. We had back-to-back false starts backed up to start the game. It is a loud place; we try to prepare in the noise. I make no excuses; I have to do a better job myself. We had four, I believe, false start penalties, we had a number of penalties in the kicking game, which really hurt us in terms of field position. It has been an area that we have been pretty good at throughout the year and I just have to do a better job.”
(On committing penalties this late in the season)
“We have been pretty good. Yesterday we had, I believe, four offensive false starts, they were crucial penalties. At the same time, we had a couple in the kicking game that we talked about, which were also critical penalties. They didn’t come in a timely fashion that is for sure.”
(On his play calling)
“He is right, you can’t play scared and I don’t believe we did, in my opinion. There are some times on third-and-seven, where we are playing for a field goal, to make it a three possession game. Yesterday, we shot the ball in for a touchdown right before the half. We only had one other red zone possession, which came after the blocked punt. I am not going to apologize for running the ball on first down, against a four-deep coverage, everybody does. Second-and-7, we threw the ball, we liked the play that we called, and we got sacked. On third-and-13 or third-and-14, third-and-28, those will be calls that I let you guys make.”
(On QB Brian Griese)
“Our quarterback was a late scratch, and the guy went out there and did some excellent things. Of all the Falcon game film we saw, Brian did as good as a lot of guys did yesterday, given the fact that he has been inactive for the most part of two months. His pocket presence has been good. I saw him play in Chicago and throw 70 balls without a sack, so he has great pocket presence. I think his inactivity had something to contribute that to, it’s unfortunate. The protection at times was pretty good, and there were times I think, Brian uncharacteristically held the ball, but he is trying to make a play, too.”
(On WR Antonio Bryant)
“We had a couple of shot plays. Again, we tried to get Antonio the ball throughout the game, and we had a lot of success early in the game. Second half, we shot the ball to him a couple of times; unfortunately we just didn’t get it done.”
(On Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin leaving after the season)
“I think we all respect his situation, we have tremendous respect for him. We had a pretty good indication that he was going to join his son. It is a great reunion for the Kiffin family, and we are happy for them. I don’t believe it was a distraction. Obviously, we are going to miss Monte Kiffin, not only as a football coach, but as a friend. He has done a lot of great things here. I don’t believe it has been a distraction for us. I think not having our two defensive tackles had a lot to do with some of the problems. We are playing some guys out of position to a degree, but I believe our guys have rallied and really played hard.”
(On DE Gaines Adams)
“He’s hurting. He’s sore. I think he and DE Greg White are in the training room today. It’s a problematic situation right now but I think Gaines will be ready to go for San Diego, but I know he is hurting a little bit.”
(On the San Diego Chargers)
“We’re going to have to play good defense. We realize we’re up against a great football team. I don’t care what their record is. When you have 12 or 13 Pro Bowl football players, RB LaDainian Tomlinson, [RB Darren] Sproles is a great back, outstanding tight end, [QB Philip] Rivers leads the NFL in passing efficiency, it will be challenging. There’s no question. And defensively, they have a lot of household names there, too. I think the bottom line is we’ll get the medical report from the trainer. We’ll try to get our best healthy men suited up and we need to find a way to win.”
(On finishing the season at home)
“It’s important. It’s great to be at home. It was a tough two-game stretch for us, obviously. Two games in six days, the number of injuries, against two quality teams. It’s unfortunate we didn’t play better and win, but we’re excited about finishing the season at home. We’re looking forward to seeing our fans. We played well in our stadium throughout the first 14 weeks and hopefully that’s the case again this Sunday.”
(On who should be selected to the Pro Bowl from the Buccaneers)
“All of them. I vote for all of them. I don’t like to single out players. I hope S Tanard Jackson. I hope Jeff Faine. Our punter, Josh Bidwell. I hope K Matt Bryant gets recognized for what he’s done under the circumstances, an unbelievable performance. WR Antonio Bryant, what he’s done. If he’s not in the Pro Bowl, he should be. He should be a comeback player of the year candidate. Just can’t say enough about how well he’s played. Defensively, there are a lot of guys, LB Barrett Ruud. I’d take a lot of these guys on my team any day, but we’ll see.”
(On if the injuries affected the penalties on special teams)
“Could be. Guys are playing different positions. Guys haven’t been in before. I don’t want to make a bunch of excuses or present doom and gloom, but penalties were a big factor in the game yesterday. We are scrambling a little bit to get guys in positions where they’ve played. That’s part of pro football and we didn’t do well enough yesterday in those areas.”
(On playoff scenarios)
“We got to win. All I know is that we have to win. We have to win. San Diego has to win and Atlanta had to win yesterday. It will be a great game Sunday. We have to win. They have to win and somebody’s going to win. We have to have a great week of preparation. We have to get to the bottom of our long list of injuries and that we will.”
(On the team’s morale)
“Yeah, they’re disappointed. I’m disappointed. We’re all disappointed and there are a lot of teams in the league that are with us. You have to be mentally tough. I think the injuries are deflating certainly as much as anything. We have to get some people well this week to play a very good opponent here at home.”
(On tackling)
“I thought we did some really good things. I think they had some success on some second and long draw plays. Maybe our run entry wasn’t exact, but the guys played hard. They got the ball back. We created some turnovers and yeah, I saw some improvement certainly.”