Interview session with Head Coach Raheem Morris in which a Buc'em reporter may or may NOT have been there asking these questions! hmmmm....
Coach how was Antonio Byrant's surgury? Did he do it?
"Antonio Bryant – successful surgery this morning. Went down there and got it done. Everything was right on schedule, what we talked about yesterday: Three weeks. You know, probably could be back for the fourth [preseason] game. Don't know. You might want to get a little test run to see what he can do. Other than that, we had D[errick] Ward back. He was up and running. [Jeremy] Trueblood will be back this afternoon; he's ready to go. The new injuries: Geno Hayes got a mild hammy yesterday at the end of practice, came in a little sore this morning. We held him, so maybe he'll go this afternoon; not sure. Right now he's just day-to-day. We've got to keep evaluating Geno a little bit. Matt Bryant today was the only real new one in practice today. He kind of strained that hamstring a little bit, kind of left after his field goal period. That's the only thing that's new there."
How was practice overall today?
"Today we emphasized a little more red zone. You guys know the stat that we're looking for when we're searching for how productive we want to be in the red zone. If we can make that thing come alive we can be a pretty good football team. We did some short- yardage and some goal-line. It would be easy when you're a young head coach and you've got a couple nicks on your team – you're worried about people, you're getting close to the game – not to go live, but I chose to go live anyway. This group's a pretty tough group. You've got to love how they're practicing, you've got to love how they're going out and competing.
The defense stood up again on goal line. They looked tough again. Maybe it's a credit to some of those young D-linemen, maybe it's a discredit to some of our young offensive linemen. I've got to look at the tape and find it out, but the defense looked good in the goal-line period down there. Had a little no-huddle offense. We've talked about changing the tempo. Today we had most of our runs installed; a couple passes but not as many as you would like to see when you go in no-huddle, when you're trying to dictate the tempo.
Again, we talked about it earlier, embracing the heat down here. If we can get out here, if we can feel comfortable going out in that type of menacing heat right there – because it was menacing today – and call the no-huddle offense…you come in here, you're from another place and you've got to be ready to deal with that? That's tough duty for people. If we can embrace that, if we can get that thing going, if we can start to run the football, start to wear some people down, use the elements to our advantage, I love that thought."
Coach is it true your going to practice over at the Stadium? if so when? why?
"On Thursday we're going over to the stadium. Brand-new staff, brand-new players, brand-new team, brand-new head coach. We've got to get used to going into the stadium, going through our communications systems, having guys go up into the box, who's talking to who, who's talking to what? We're going to have a little pregame practice, see what's going on, where you go out, when you go out, what position goes out? All the big stuff you would do on a game day, we don't want the first time we do it to be on Saturday so we're going to go out there and do it a little bit for ourselves. We're going to go out there and have pretty much a regular practice after that, but it's going to be done from the box. The calls and stuff are going to be over the headsets instead of using the walkie- talkies right next to each other. We'll be doing it from the box. You'll see some of the coordinators up in the box, you'll see the guys going up in the box on defense and we'll get that thing rolling right along."
How do you think your team would fare if Clayton and Bryant went down in a game?
"You never want to say you're okay losing your starters. Nobody is. But we've got to be mentally tough and move on. Just like I talked about with injuries from the beginning, it doesn't really matter who it is. It's not going to give anybody an excuse. It's not going to give anybody a reason why we shouldn't do what we're supposed to do. Our job is to win football games and we've got to go out and win them, with whoever's playing."
Coach anything to Matt Bryants injury, and how to do intend to use both kickers? ...or do you?
"Obviously, no. I'm sure Matt Bryant has some concern and I'm sure his coach has some concern. We've just got to get into the game and let him kick, get him healthy, let him be ready to play, let him be ready to go out there and compete. He made all the kicks today and he kind of strained it a little bit so he stepped out. We've just got to get him healthy, get him to the games so he can go out there and compete. Usually you don't have two guys. Usually you've got to get somebody off the street right now to come compete with him. So we as an organization are kind of in a fortunate situation but you still want to see Matt Bryant at his very best to let him go compete and let him be his very best."
"I really didn’t {plan to use both}. It’s not the same plan with the quarterbacks. It’s just two of those guys,
you can kind of do that how you feel. You can do that based on quarters, you can do that based on halves, you can do that however you want to do it. That wasn’t as stressful as the quarterbacks.
Fan feelings about Sabby Piscitellii starting at safetly go back and forth for and against. How much confidence do you have in Sabby as your safety?
"Everybody’s talking about [Jermaine] Phillips move to linebacker and the confidence in Sabby [Piscitelli]. But a lot of the reason was a way to get your three best athletes on your football team on the field. They’re guys that have played and you feel really good about. It’s a way to get Sabby on your field, it’s your second rounder, he played a lot for me last year, ready to go, ready to break out of his shell and become the safety that he could be. With Tanard Jackson back there, they could lead this team for awhile.
Then you get a chance to get Phillips and you move him to linebacker because of how well he played in the box at safety. You move him there, you have confidence in Sabby, you move him there because you have confidence in his ability in the box and his ability to move around and cause splash. Create some of that stuff that we lost with some of our other backs we had in the past. The Derrick Brooks like plays, the Cato June interceptions, all the type things you had from when they were up and rolling. You try to create some splash back again, some speed on the field, some run down ability, some tracking ability, and some just overall team speed. I just feel good about both the moves and I can’t wait to see those guys play on Saturday."
Thanks Coach! Good to see you again!!
Actual interview took place on another dimentional plane of time and existance. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. if there are any.