A relieved Dirk Koetter spoke with the media following the Bucs last-second win over the Carolina Panthers on Monday Night Football, giving Tampa Bay a 2-3 record heading into their bye week. Below is a transcript from his post game press conference.

Was this as much of a team win as you’ve had, with the defense getting the turnovers and the late drive?
“Our defense was awesome all night. Four turnovers off the defense, one off special teams, holding Carolina to one-for-eight on third downs, our D played a heck of a game. First half we did an awesome job stopping the run, we fell off a little bit there in the second half but a lot of guys came up big tonight and it started obviously with our defense. In the first half, the fact that we could run the ball, Jacquizz (Rodgers) did a heck of a job tonight as well.”

Did you feel Jacquizz (Rodgers) was capable of that kind of workload?
“I think I mentioned to you guys that I saw Jacquizz (Rodgers) carry it about 50 times in one game in Oregon State against USC a few years back so I knew he could do it.”

How close enough did you need to get on that last drive to feel comfortable about the game winning field goal.
“I wasn’t comfortable. We couldn’t have got close enough.”

The last drive.
“That was a difficult situation because Carolina had all of their timeouts left and we were kind of backed up a little bit, so I felt like we should go conservative until we made a first down just because I think a three-and-out would have been very dangerous right there because they would have had a chance to come down and get the field goal. We went with our jumbo package, we had a lot of big guys in, we tried to run it and they stuffed us a couple of times on the run. That third down, that was a crazy series there where the refs kept coming in and stopping the play for all of those various reasons. There was just a lot of stuff going on. On Jacquizz’s run on second down, I’ll be interested to see the tape. Even though he went out of bounds, he went out of bounds sideways. I thought they should have wound the clock right there. They stopped it, so then we threw it out of 13 jumbo, that was a huge play, to get that first down. That was the key to that whole drive, was getting that first first-down. Then we went into our two minute offense and Jameis (Winston) did a really nice job of making good decisions, checking it down at the right time. From there, I’ve said many times, I am real confident in what we can do in our two minute. Our guys did a nice job and then once we got to the 40, I thought if we ran the ball, for Roberto (Aguayo), I don’t think it matters that much inside the 35, I don’t think distance really matters that much.”

How much does the game winning kick calm the concern?
“I don’t know about that. I am happy that he made it and that is awesome that he made it but we can’t miss those field goals. What do you want me to say? We can’t miss those. That could have lost us the game, I’m happy that he made the other one.”

Producing a game winning drive
“That was a great team win. To beat Carolina here, I think its seven straight times they’ve beat the Bucs and we’re 2-0 in the division both road wins, we did some nice stuff tonight. We did some really good stuff. I‘m really proud of the guys. Three of our four starting defensive linemen out, starting our third running back, a ton of guys stepped up big time.”

Number one priority getting into the bye week
“Getting healthy. That wasn’t a hard question right there, getting healthy.”

You ran it 10 times on the first drive, six in a row, was that the mentality, ‘we’re going to run this football tonight?’
“I think if you look back, last year, we ran it like that. When we are making efficient runs, we keep running it. We did that a lot like last year with Doug (Martin). I think we had a good run game plan. George Warhop, our run game coordinator, did a nice job and Jacquizz was making yards. When you are on the road and the way we’ve been turning the ball over we just felt like they’re playing their backup quarterback, it was take the crowd out of it, slow the game down a little bit, that was the best strategy tonight.”

How big was it just to stop the bleeding after losing three in a row?
“Man, we just won on Monday Night Football. No one thought that we could, you kidding me.”