Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16, Carolina Panthers 14
DAVE CANALES: First of all, I'll just say congratulations to the Bucs. They played phenomenally on defense today. Offensively, they made some points. They capitalized on some of our turnovers. They had those early scores and our defense kind of settled in and made them settle for field goals, which puts us right back into the game at the end there.
But I'm proud of our group. I'm proud of the way we battle. The way we played all the way to the end. Just believing if we have time and downs, we got a chance in this thing and the way the guys came together and fought together, I was really proud of that part. And now, you know, it's in the hands of another game and that's not what we were hoping for but there's still hope, they're still alive and the locker room certainly is sick about a missed opportunity but I can't take anything away from the Bucs and the way they played today.
Q. Dave, I know that you never want to leave it to the officials. There were a couple of controversial calls. Did you get any explanation for those in realtime?
DAVE CANALES: I did. I don't really want to get into that because we just didn't play well enough offensively speaking. We didn't get our run game going, a bad day on third down, which doesn't give us an opportunity to extend the drives and really have a balanced offense the way that we can play. Some missed opportunities out there, so it really just has to be on us and about the execution and all of us making sure we're in the right place at the right time.
Q. But in a game this close, when you're right there...
DAVE CANALES: It certainly is a factor, but there's a whole game we got to consider and we didn't get enough done. That's what we got to look at ourselves and the things that we missed and I'm sure there's going to be some opportunities when we watch the film that we're going to wish we would have had.
Q. Dave, you had a flea flicker that went awry.
DAVE CANALES: Yeah.
Q. What was that?
DAVE CANALES: An aggressive call. Knew they were going to play some single high right there and we just, Rico slipped on the exchange and we took a shot right there. I liked the call. I liked the opportunity that it presented us right there in the red zone to take advantage of it, and we didn't get that done.
Q. (Inaudible).
DAVE CANALES: He just slipped, that's all.
Q. No, not that. What was open? What did you want?
DAVE CANALES: I don't want to get into that, we got another game potentially.
Q. Is that -- do you like that play at that part of the field?
DAVE CANALES: Absolutely.
Q. Why?
DAVE CANALES: It's just an aggressive call that I had the right look on.
Q. Dave, what happened to the running game today?
DAVE CANALES: Bucs played us really well. We didn't block them good enough. They disrupted us up front. They fit their gaps and made sure we were getting ones, twos, and threes, and just really stopped our run game and so we had to do some other things to try to make some yards.
Q. How much did the weather affect the offense?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, weather would you describe certainly a factor, but it was weather for the Bucs too and they found a way to execute and we didn't.
Q. I understand that you're just coming off the field, will you watch Falcons Saints tomorrow? Do you need to...
DAVE CANALES: Oh, I mean, shoot, I think we're all going to be on the edge of our seats tomorrow watching that game, you know? Hoping for the outcome, hoping for the Falcons to pull through, but at the same time, at least we have that hope to look at. We have to look at ourselves and we have to make sure that in these championship moments that we play our best.
Q. ... on that interception in the first half for Bryce?
DAVE CANALES: Guy made a jump on the ball.
Q. Will you watch the game as the team?
DAVE CANALES: This past, this game?
Q. The Falcons game tomorrow?
DAVE CANALES: Not as a team, no. We'll all be watching from our homes.
Q. Dave at that point, as you said, you had a chance today, you could've clenched last week. How disappointed are you?
DAVE CANALES: Missed opportunities, absolutely. These are the championship moments that we live for, that we prepare for, that we talk about and to not be able to get that done, to not be able to play our best football in these moments. Those -- certainly that's what we're all disappointed about, the whole group together and we have to find a way to be able to play in these types of games.
And I'm really excited about our group. I'm really excited about the different pieces that we're getting going and I told the group we don't ever have to feel this way again. We can build from this. We have to take the next steps and make sure that we show up with the championship mindset.
Q. Dave, they mentioned on the broadcast that several guys went to longer spikes and there were some glove situations. How big a factor were the conditions?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, the turf was what it was and we could tell that pre-game and guys felt comfortable with certain footwear and we had a couple of slips and guys wanted to go to a longer -- they had long enough cleats to begin with but they wanted to go to a longer type of cleats that have that foot in the ground and so any edge you can get, any competitive edge you can find, it's worth trying especially in this game.
Q. Dave, what message did you leave the guys with now not knowing next time you see them what the results will be?
DAVE CANALES: Just the pride that I have for this group, what we've built and putting ourselves in this position to play good football down the stretch and I left them with that and also just, hey, you never know what could happen, guys. We have to be mentally ready, mentally prepared for whatever happens tomorrow.
Q. What did you see on the pass interference call?
DAVE CANALES: I mean, there's hands extended. I was not watching T-Mac on the play. I was kind of watching the entire secondary and seeing where the ball was gonna go. He certainly had an opportunity. Got to just go with what they called live around I'm sure I'll have a chance to look at it and see what it is.
Q. Bryce was visibly upset we saw on the telecast talking to the officials about that call. I know that you have head coaching and play calling duties. In that instance, is there somebody on the sidelines who kind of talks to the ref and advocates for the team?
DAVE CANALES: I spoke with them. They're not going to overturn that call live. But I spoke with them right after it happened. I just wanted to know what did you see and what was the call?
Q. Was that in reference to the OPI or the lateral pass...
DAVE CANALES: It was the OPI that I was talking to.
Q. Did you talk about the other play? It was kind of like a -- it seemed... (inaudible).
DAVE CANALES: No, I didn't talk to them about that.
Q. How did you feel about Bryce's level of execution?
DAVE CANALES: I felt like he was competitive and gave our guys some chances and early on. It was wet. He lasered some balls in there, a couple of third downs we could have converted early in the game I think would have helped us continue our rhythm offensively.
Q. Dave, the winner of this division's going to have a losing record. Your reaction to people who might be critical of that and say this division shouldn't host a playoff game.
DAVE CANALES: It's a grimy, gritty division. Between our team, between the Falcons and the Bucs, we have had our share of wins against top opponents in this league. We all play a similar style of football and the pride of it is on just physicality and playing really tough and that's where this division is headed. I'm proud to be part of it. Whatever the record ends up at the end, I know that for whoever gets to get into this post-season, they're going to bring a physical brand of football and I think that that travels well, running the football on defense really travels well. We weren't able to get the running part done today but I'm proud to be part of this division and I know going forward in the future this is something that's exciting but also just seeing the different teams that are around, the challenges that are presented by finding out who gets to win this division and who's going to compete for it.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports...
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports