Gruden News Conference Transcript

Bucs coach Jon Gruden discusses Sunday's win against Arizona and other topics:

(Opening statement)
"I'm just real pleased with the victory. Obviously, we don't have a game this week. It will give our players a chance to get a little time to, hopefully, get well for the second half of the season. Our guys did play very hard yesterday. It was a big win for our team."

(On if there is an update on DE Greg Spires)
"No, we will just take it day by day. As the week unfolds we will let you guys know as we get started next week."

(On how practice has been limited)
"It has been a problem. On Wednesdays we haven't had a practice the last two weeks; we have had more of a walk-through, because of the injuries. They have mounted at certain positions. We have used Wednesday as a day that we have gotten all of our reps in, maybe some bonus reps, not full speed, not physical, not normal. We have not been accommodating; we have done what we need to do to prepare our team to play. But what we want to do is get back to a normal schedule if we can, following this bye week, to do that we need guys to practice."

(On T Jeremy Trueblood's ejection)
"I don't know what to anticipate. I was disappointed in that last sequence of plays. We fumbled the snap, but obviously when you look at the replay they swat the ball. The officials missed that call. Then they tried to swat the ball again. There were some after the whistle things going on there that the NFL should look at, I am sure they will. I don't anticipate any fine. I just thought that was an ugly sequence of plays and we will let the league handle it."

(On QB Jeff Garcia)
"He has been great. He has played so well for us and meant so much to our team. Given the circumstances, he has really been superb. You know you lose Cadillac [Williams], and [Michael] Pittman, and [Mike] Alstott. You lose your tight end, your left tackle, [Michael] Clayton is gone, Mark Jones is gone, [David] Boston is gone, Paris Warren is gone, all the guys you work with in April, May, June, July, [and] August are gone. It is a credit to him. He has been a great leader, he has been a consistent playmaker, and his poise, I think, shows through these times. He has been outstanding, I think, from day one. He has missed some throws here and there, but he is completing close to 70 percent of his balls. He has made some incredible effort plays, some really heady ones in deed. He is a big reason why we have a chance."

(On finishing long drives)
"We've had three 18, 19, 20 play drives, two in Detroit and one yesterday and got no points. We fumbled the ball first-and-goal on the one, we had a penalty and a missed field goal in Detroit, and he missed a wide open play yesterday. He dropped the football, missed a short range field goal. As I say to other players, for us to win and beat good teams, and move on we're going to have to make those plays. I'm really pleased with the drives we've mounted and some of the results that we're getting, but there is nothing like going the whole day working throughout the week and not getting paid and we have to cash in on our hard work and some of this is play making I'm talking about is routine plays and those are inexcusable."

(On Galloway and Hilliard stabilizing the wide receiver position)
"Ike [Hilliard] has been playing hurt. He's been playing with a variety of injuries. Galloway is still a very dangerous deep receiver, we are trying to get him more and more involved in other things. But those two guys have been leaders and play makers and consistent ones for us and we're hoping [Maurice] Stovall, you see yourself as one the rise and we're anxious to see him help those guys in the coming weeks."

(On what he is doing next weekend)
"I have no idea. I've got three sons, I plan on spending some time with them. I'm proud of them guys, they're involved in some things at school and outside of school that I'd like to be there for them and share a little private time with them. It will be nothing exciting, that's for sure. Maybe I'll go catch a high school football game, it's playoff time now, I like to do that."

(On the development of the offensive line)
"I'm very pleased. I have to tell Bill Muir and Aaron Kromer that they're doing a great job a lot because those are two rookies basically on the left side. We had two rookies on the right side last year, that's four guys with a combined NFL experience of two years. We're picking up a lot of blitzes. We're handling a lot of offensive football quite well. We're really excited about the development, the progress, and the future of those guys. John Wade has really done a great job as the veteran of the bunch, making the calls and delivering the ball and putting our people in position to execute. That's been a real plus for us, I think through the first nine weeks.

(On T Donald Penn)
"He's doing good. As I said to somebody last week, I try not to compliment him very often because he has a head that swells, he can't handle praise too well, Donald. You have a long way to go but we do like some of the things that you are doing, doing well."

(On DE Gaines Adams)
"He had a couple of pressures. He was excellent on a couple of zone blitz drops, he almost intercepted a pass. It was his first start; I thought he did some good things. We're going to need a lot more from him but anytime you hold a quarterback of Kurt Warner's status to 10 for 30, he came in with a 95 or 96 rating, he's been throwing the ball well. A lot of it had to do with excellent coverage and we certainly got some hits and a pretty good rush but it's still not good enough."

(On Tanard Jackson and Jermaine Phillips)
"They played great. I think Tanard Jackson had five break-ups, had the interception, had a near another pick, had a couple of big hits. Jermaine Phillips, what can I say about Jermaine, he's really playing good for us, capping off plays, showing some range, some air range plays and some real striking ability and he made a lot of adjustments and a lot of things happened back there for us."

(On the defense not being on the field that often yesterday)
"Ryan Sims came in a made a couple of nice plays for us. Kevin Carter played real solid for us again. We do have some opportunistic people. If was great to get Brian Kelly back, we already talked about [Ronde] Barber and Phillip Buchanon played well for us. The safeties, our pass defense is very good at this point and we're going to need to rely on that down the stretch."

(On what stands out about Earnest Graham)
"His stamina, his ability to make some hidden yardage, a lot of the runs he made, we're wasn't a lot of big holes, but he makes good reads, he's a north south guy, he's a good traffic runner, he protects the ball. Great touchdown run honestly inside the three yard line, so real good cut-back move the pile type runs. He carried the ball 33-34 times, I think 31 of those plays he had positive yardage and he moved around well and what can I say, he played well."

(On the offensive line standing up for their teammates)
"There's a certain etiquette that is a part of football, at least the competition committee goes over those things every year, [on] what's good for the game, and what occurred late in the game was ugly. I'm not going to be tolerant of us getting a 15-yard ejection penalty when we have a chance to ice the game. But we do appreciate loyalty, and guys believing in one another, but there comes a time where you have to settle those things outside the lines. That's just not good enough yesterday, we have to show more poise than that."