It was the first home game victory Monday for Bruce Arians when he spoke with the media and he was ready to build on top of the Bucs’ win.
Below is a full transcript from Arians’ press conference on Monday.
Opening Statement
“Not a lot different, you know, I thought the last five minues of the last five games came the other way, this time it went our way, we made the plays. Jamel Dean, game ball, studied an extra hour every day last week with Todd to get ready. He knew that play was coming, made the play. Jameis two weeks in a row now has taken us the length of the field to win or tie a ball game, and that’s the growth you’re looking for. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, we got lucky, Tampa sunshine helped us a little bit. We let a guy go on fourth-and-four and the sun got in his eyes and he dropped it. About time we got a break.”

Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
On the two-minute offense and how you judge Jameis Winston playing in it
“We’ve been outstanding at half all year, last week with 40 seconds and this week with a minute. That touchdown was huge after we gave up one and take that lead back before the half. To me that’s how you judge NFL quarterbacks, can they play in that situation? Forget the rest, can they play in that situation, and right now, Jameis, I don’t know if anybody is playing better in two-minute the last three or four weeks.”
On what’s the key to playing well in two-minute offense
“I think it’s confidence. Knowing what you’re doing, first of all, trusting the guys around you, putting in the time to know what you’re going to see. Is this team a blitz team? Is it a Cover 2? Whether they do in two-minute, are they a Tampa 2 team? Have some preconceived notions of where this ball might go in two-minute, I think the running game really helped, we popped Peyton out of there, and I can’t say enough about Peyton in that fourth quarter. I thought he had a great fourth quarter, I thought he had a great fourth quarter, that touchdown wasn’t as easy as it looked even though Vita did knock down three guys. I actually watched Vita’s high school running back tapes today just in case. It’s pretty impressive.”
On where does doing a fake punt with a double reverse and flea flicker rank on his no biscuit scale
“Well first of all, there’s no such thing as pass interference in punt formation.. I don’t know where that came from. They did make a heck of a play, when they moved we should have checked out of the seven-man box, that’s the stuff we talk about. Now with our young guys, we have to physically do things on the practice field and that’s something we’ll correct.”
On what it says about the team’s mentality to never give up after forcing two turnovers in the red zone after the offense had turned it over
“Can’t say enough about our sudden change defense, we were three out of four. I think Lavonte’s play turned the whole game, we turned it over, he takes it away, that’s a play probably four guys can make in this league and he’s obviously one of them. And then the second one where Jamel makes that interception, I think when you turn it over and we take it back, it’s a huge, huge confidence builder.”
On the offense making the last game changing play to win
“I think last week and this week our offense did what I took to win the game. We got to where we needed to in Seattle, I think had we won the coin toss we would have won the game, but we didn’t. I’d just say with the growth of the offense, when you start averaging up in the high 20’s in points you’re doing something right. Defensively, we got to start, and we have, this is the first one where we played a little bit better.”
On if he designed a couple plays for O.J. Howard based on the matchup and how important his development will be

Photo by: Mary Holt/PR
“I think it’s huge. Did we purposely put any in? We had a couple plays, the thing on the goal line we thought we’d get a good matchup and it wasn’t actually what we looked for but it was a great throw and catch, Jameis liked what he saw. We knew they were going to play a lot of Cover 2 and he should own the middle of the field, he had some good seam balls, almost had another one, had the shake route in there. I think it was more just same stuff, just more opportunities to get it.”
On rotating Mike Edwards and Andrew Adams at safety and how that is going
“It’s just a matter of we want to see them both. Mike is still growing from when he had his injuries, and we like him. Andrew is a safe, solid, player, so just give them both reps.”
On how he’ll handle the corner position when Carlton Davis returns with Jamel Dean’s growth
“It will be fun. We’ll have guys that we can put in there and maybe even rotate a little bit and maybe keep them fresher.”
On his frustration with the refs, if it’s someone’s job to take his red flag when he had no challenges left
“Yeah, I kept it. It goes back around eight years, saw Marvin Lewis throw it to stop a game. He [Kyler Murray] was obviously on his knee, it was a timeout, I wanted to make a statement.”
On if he wanted to make a statement by throwing the red challenge flag with no challenges
“I knew I didn’t have any.”
On just wanting to prove a point to the ref and show their mistake
“I still thought we should have won the pass interference on M.J., but we obviously didn’t. When things are going in a game, there’s only some certain ways to get a point across. I could have cost us losing a timeout, but it wasn’t a penalty.”
On if throwing the flag forces the crew to come talk to him
“No, it just, when everybody sees it on the jumbotron, ‘you watching this?’ Alright, let’s pick it up.”
On what Lavonte David has meant to the young players
“I don’t know if you could quantitatively put a value on it, it’s so, so big. For a young guy to go to a guy, and him on the field, off the field, everywhere in life, help these kids out the way he does, it’s the ultimate pro. It’s the only way I can say it, and he is the ultimate pro.”
On Cam Brate’s willingness to take his role whatever it may be, if that’s what they have to have to be successful
“There’s no doubt about it. We had plays for him too but this time it was O.J.’s. They’ve been Cam’s in the past, especially in the red zone where he’s so effective. I think that’s part of being a team member.”
On if there was an adjustment made by the offensive line that limited sacks later on
“I think sometimes watching film you don’t get a sense for a guys’ power. I think I want to say we busted one of them. The offensive line’s got a lot of pride, I was disappointed in our running game, we had too many negative runs in the second half, guys penetrating gaps and we were running some outside zone and even our downhill stuff. We were using Josh Wells as a tight end and he got beat, so that part was a little disappointing.”
On how he evaluates bringing Jameis Winston back next season and if he’s made that decision yet

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Getty Images
“It’s an ongoing process for me. The good, the bad, the ugly, you put it all together. Two-minute is huge, when you can take your team at the end of the half and go get a touchdown in a minute, end of a game, we didn’t do it in the first game but now we’ve done it for a few weeks. You don’t really want to get in that situation in your first game. I see that growth, I see him throwing balls away, guy made a really good play on the first pick, I think we could have run a better route but that was where to go with the ball, same thing with the second one, it was us. I just see growth, I see growth as a leader, I see growth as a quarterback.”
On Jameis Winston avoiding sacks
“That’s huge. That’s a big part of it. Stay second-and-10, not second-and-18.”