Head Coach Todd Monken (9.18.26)
How did you see Tyson’s (Campbell) ankle respond to getting back out there in practice?
“He moved around well. We’ll have to see how it comes out of practice, but I thought he moved around well.”
Are you confident he’ll play on Sunday?
“I’ll wait to comment on that after we get off the field, but I like what I saw, him moving around.”
Parker (Brailsford) isn’t listed on the injury report for this weekend. How confident do you feel going into this game with him as the backup center?
“We’ll have to see whether or not we see him as our backup center at this point, with the time he’s been out.”
I’m sure you want to get all your playmakers involved, but with Harold (Fannin Jr.), after just three targets in game one, will you go into game two making it an emphasis to get him the ball again?
“I don’t know. I mean, we do, we have a number of guys you’d like to get the ball to, but we just, we didn’t stack plays early enough in the game and ended up with 49 total snaps. So that’s not going to nearly be enough to get the guys that we want to get the ball to. But he’s certainly a weapon.”
When you guys kind of dug into the run game, did you identify what the issues were, and how much of it was you falling behind early for why you couldn’t run the ball as much?
“Some of it was that, some of it is they’re really good, and some of it, it was our first game collectively. We certainly can do it better, schematically, coaching and playing. I expect us, as the year goes on, to continue to get better and better with the O-line playing together. I think that’s a part of it. We’re new as a staff. These aren’t excuses, we certainly have to do it better and get our O-line working together with our tight ends. And I think you’ll continue to see the run game grow.”
What did you see out of this team this week after coming off the though Week 1 loss? With them being so young, one of the youngest teams in the NFL, how have you seen them handle this week?
“I’ve seen it like they’ve handled every week that I’ve been here, and that’s go to work. And that’s what’s really been impressive with this group, is they just work. They enjoy being around each other, they enjoy football. Now, how do we clean the things up that we need to clean up? That’s really where we’ve got to get to. It wasn’t about effort; it wasn’t about the work that we put in. But how do we direct it? How do we continue to direct our effort in the right direction?”
After going through this week, what have you seen from Deshaun (Watson)? In particular, I know Travis (Switzer) talked about going through the film, you guys saw some decisiveness that you liked. So, what about that element of it with him?
“You certainly saw some of that. I saw it the more he got all the reps with the ones in the week leading up to the game. Sure, there’s a lot of things to work on, a lot of things for all of us to work on, but he was certainly more decisive. He was certainly more decisive in terms of throwing the ball downfield, which is what we wanted to see, and we’re looking forward to building on that. And I think he has this week.”
What are the biggest challenges with how the Buccaneers play defense?
“They challenge all of your run rules, and they challenge all of your protection rules with their ability to bring pressure from every edge, whether it’s your strong side edge or weak side, that’ll bring secondary pressures. So, you certainly have to be on top of your identifications in the run game, and then in the pass protection. It’ll be a long day if you’re not on time.”
You talked about getting the ball down the field. Tampa Bay likes getting the ball down the field. Baker (Mayfield) isn’t afraid to make any throw anywhere. The challenges that (Emeka) Egbuka and (Chris) Godwin Jr. bring on the receiving end, what type of pressure does that add to your secondary?
“Well, it does, I’ve been around Chris, I was there when we drafted him and Egbuka is a guy we did a lot of research on him at the place I was before. And they’re just guys that get it. (Jalen) McMillan, I know can really run, we did some research on him, but I know the other two. They’re just guys that get it. They’re really good football players that I know any quarterback can trust, and that’s what you like about them.”
What is it about Bucky (Irving) as a running back that sets him apart? What makes him a unique challenge for your defense to deal with?
“We’ll, he’s explosive. And he’s got excellent contact balance. You see every game; he’s an explosive waiting to happen. When you get him through the first level, you get him the ball in space, we’re going to have to do a great job of knowing where he’s at and obviously getting hats to the ball where he’s at.”
How did those years in Tampa contribute to your career?
“Well, you know, I wouldn’t be where I’m at without Dirk (Koetter), who was the head coach there. And we worked together in Jacksonville, and he hired me as the offensive coordinator, and gave me the opportunity to call plays in ’18, and that changed my track forever. A guy that called it for 30 years and gave me the opportunity to call it then. And all the things that I believe in go back to him. And I’ve got a lot of respect, and I consider the people in the front office friends of mine, between Jason (Licht) and John Spytek was there and he’s now with the Raiders, and Mike (Biehl) and Rob McCartney and Mike Greenberg, all those guys I consider friends. We just didn’t win enough, but I really enjoyed it there, I grew as a coach. But yeah, with Dirk allowing me to get into the NFL, allowing me to call plays, and then the front office, those guys have done a great job. Those were three great years.”
I know you said you liked how you prepped for the Florida heat in Jacksonville. With that being said, do you do anything different this week to simulate what it’s going to be like in Tampa on Sunday?
“Not really. I mean, we couldn’t control the heat, the weather, so we couldn’t really control that. I really liked the way we prepped for it last week. I don’t think that the prep was a reason that we didn’t play up to our standard. If I did, I think we would have tried some things differently. We just have to play more efficiently, on both sides of the ball, in how we call it and how we scheme it. Really, it came down to that, not really the heat.”
Travis mentioned yesterday that to sort of combat some of that presnap stuff, operational stuff. You guys were having the clock be shorter at practice and running off into the sidelines as two of the tactics you were using. How did you think that went this week in trying to get better at some of that stuff that you said even surprised you last week that you didn’t expect?
“Well, we’re going to find out, aren’t we? But that’s what you do, isn’t it? If you want to change something, you’ve got to change how you do it. And we weren’t getting the desired results. And I thought we were fine, but obviously we weren’t. So, that’s what you’re going to do in life, right? You’re going to own it and fight like hell to fix it. And that’s what we’re going to do. And that’s what we’ve done this week. Guys have done a great job with it.”
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