Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9, Carolina Panthers 0
CHRIS TABOR: All right. We'll go ahead and get started here. No injuries to report after the game there. I tip my hat to Tampa Bay, congratulations to them. Um, you know, we shot ourselves in the foot and we scored a couple of times and self-inflicted took those points off the board so that's obviously very disappointing. Like how our guys bounced back from a previous week how what we were trying to do and, you know, with regards to running the football, I thought our defense playing really well limiting those guys to field goals and giving us an opportunity. I thought our special teams handled field position. It was definitely a windy day out there. Had to do some navigation through that. But the season's over now. That's it, and with that I'll answer any of the questions.
Q. Chris, how deflating was it to have --
CHRIS TABOR: Oh, sorry, one at a time, who's going?
Q. What was your message to the players afterwards?
CHRIS TABOR: I just said that this room will change. This room will now change, and I think that the motto of character and compromise will still continue for those kids, myself included, and I say that you'll probably pass that down to your kids as you become a parent. You can never lose sight of those lessons. Learn from it and move on.
Q: Chris, how deflating were those guys when they got taken off the --
CHRIS TABOR: How deflating were they? Well, obviously we didn't score any points off it so extremely deflating.
Q. The call back touchdown with the illegal formation.
CHRIS TABOR: Apparently I don't think they said that 79 was uncovered there so we didn't have somebody on the line of scrimmage on the other side.
Q. Chris, you were part of the 0-16 Brown season. What did you learn from that about maybe kind of -- I know you left Cleveland after that about resiliency from the coaching standpoint, from a player stand point, the guys that have come out of that?
CHRIS TABOR: I think that I've said since I've taken over is about the tape. What does your tape say? I mean, yes, 0-16 is horrible. This isn't much better, and how you go from here is obviously is going to talk a lot about how you are as a person. I learned a lot that year and, you know, just kind of continue to try to keep getting better.
Q. What do you think outside of those turnovers kind of stinted the offense in the second half, just kind of --
CHRIS TABOR: Well, obviously those turnovers or killers and I'll say with the penalty, it's a turnover and I know because -- was that -- correct me if I'm wrong, was that when we got the, I don't want to call it a sack fumble but guy came around the edge, so, yeah, you're talking about plays that we did to ourselves that we are in control of, that's disappointing. I guess I'm being really nice about that, but, you know, we said that we were going to come in here and run the football, and even if they stuffed us, we were still going to try to run the football and I thought we stuck to that plan pretty good.
MODERATOR: Anything else for coach?
Q. There were two plays that got called back. You say those were kind of going along with how your season went in general.
CHRIS TABOR: I don't think of it like that. I just said, you know, I understand the question and you say, okay, those are really bad plays and let's tie it in with the season because it's a bad season. Those are plays that can't happen and that's disappointing.
Q. What's next for you, Chris, and do you want to be back?
CHRIS TABOR: What's next for me is I'll, you know, I'm going to watch the film, I'm still going to stick to my process on that. We've got another team meeting tomorrow with the guys and I'm still going to cherish my time with those players. As I've always said, it is about relationships and that's not just coach speak. I really care about all these guys and the coaches that we have. You know, when it's final, that's the one thing about the NFL that I learned when I first got in. You know, when the season ends, it just stops. You're so used to a process and a routine and then all of a sudden it shuts down. What's next for me? We'll always see how that goes.
Q. You were part now of two coaching changes here. How difficult has this been for you and the staff members?
CHRIS TABOR: You know, I think those things, I think if you follow this context: I have a job to do in my special teams area and to be a pro and to coach the guys as best I can regardless of who the "head coach" is at that time. Whoever the head coach is, I'm always going to be a guy that's going to work for that guy and do whatever we can to help him win and I'm a big chain of command guy.
Q. Chris, for the purpose of effort and what you see on the tape the last couple of months, how valuable do you think it is when you look at evaluation over the next month, the tape?
CHRIS TABOR: I think that's going to be big and I told the guys that last night, told them that this morning again, you know, especially these last games, how do you play when adversity is at its highest?
I'll be honest with you, that tape out there, we were still in it, we were playing, and got a lot of respect for those guys in that room, how they battled so I tip my hat to those guys and I'm very appreciative of the effort they gave me.
Q. On that note, is Derrick Brown the type of guy that you can build around considering --
CHRIS TABOR: There's plenty of guys you can build around here. There's no doubt about that.
Q. Chris, you talked this week about Bryce's toughness. Obviously a tough season for him, too. What do you hope he takes from all this?
CHRIS TABOR: I think when he's in year 12 winning a lot of games and slicing people up a little bit, dicing it around, throwing it around, I saw you'll remember this first year and you'll probably look back and say you know what? It stunk at the time, but this really helped me get to where I'm at. He has a really bright future.
Q. Thank you, coach.
CHRIS TABOR: Thanks, everybody, appreciate you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports