TONY DUNGY
1/14/04
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (opening remarks and update on WR-Brandon Stokley)
"Brandon Stokley came out and did some work at practice. I think it was good and therapeutic for him to get out here and get around the guys and do some work. His son is stable and doing fine. He chose not to speak with the media but he does appreciate everybody's concerns and everyone's prayers. The family is doing fine. We held out a couple of guys from practice today, Robert Mathis, Cory Bird, just kind of precautionary things. Marcus Pollard did not go today and Nick Harper had some back spasms continued from yesterday and he didn't go. We expect Marcus to do some work in practice tomorrow and Nick Harper. Hopefully everybody will be ready to go by game time. Idrees Bashir did not go today either."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether he expects WR-Brandon Stokley to play)
"It's probably a little too early to tell."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on DB-Idrees Bashir)
"I would say he's doubtful at this point. We want him to play if he's 100 percent and ready to go, has enough strength in his shoulder and we'll kind of see how that is on Friday and Saturday. At this point I'd have to say it's questionable though."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether the players are getting the necessary work in)
"Yeah we are. We had good work and I think for us the combination of the doors open and the heat off has been good. We've got a little air swirling around in there, but we've got good footing to work on so it's helped us in terms of practicing."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether you expect the game to be decided by which quarterback makes more plays)
"Not necessarily. They win games in a lot of ways and we've been able to win games a lot of different ways. I told our team their last AFC Championship Game they were in they won by blocking a field goal and running it in, and returning a punt for a touchdown, so everybody's got to be ready to play. Everybody's got to be ready to contribute. A big play could come from any one of 53 guys."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether Pete Mitchell is up to speed with the offense)
"Pete is very, very up on the offense. He's a smart guy, he's a veteran. He's been in a couple of AFC Championship Games, or one AFC and one NFC, so he understands what it's all about and he knows our offense well enough to play. We're not going to have to change anything if he does play."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on how you get a sense of when your team is ready to play)
"I think we'll do the same thing. I think it will be a tremendous game and I think we'll be ready to play our best game of the year. Our guys have been able to bounce back and play hard and play well when we've needed to and these are the highest stakes we've had all year so I'd be surprised if we did anything less."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether you have to play your best game to win)
"It's really hard to say. You really have to play well, there's no question about it. You can't make a lot of mistakes and you're going to have to make some critical plays at the right time. I'm sure that New England doesn't think that they played their best game when they beat us so it doesn't always take your best game, you just have to make the plays at the right time."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on whether the team is practicing loose this week as it did prior to the Wild Card game against Denver)
"It has carried over. I think we're practicing with a lot of confidence and we're practicing with a lot of focus, but we've got a lot of young guys on the team that like to have fun. It's been a pretty good atmosphere."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on matching up with New England)
"They've won a lot of games in a row. We know how hard it was to win five in a row and they won 13 in a row. They've got a good ball club, but I like our chances."
