After back-t0-back narrow losses to the Rams and Chiefs before the Bucs went into their bye week, Tampa Bay bounced back with a crucial 26-14 win over the Vikings on Sunday.

After going down 6-0 early in the second quarter, the Bucs battled back with 23 unanswered points to take a commanding lead that they would ultimately hold on to as the clock ran out on Minnesota’s comeback attempts.

Head coach Bruce Arians spoke to the media following the Bucs’ win. Read the full transcript below.

On Scotty Miller’s touchdown starting the offense
“No doubt. We, again, missed a couple of third downs early but that was a huge touchdown and I think that getting the stop and then that play changed all the momentum on our sideline.”

On making Leonard Fournette inactive, LeSean McCoy’s role
“The decision was… I loved Leonard. I think he’s a heck of a kid, a great player but we wanted to get [McCoy] back involved. He’s fresh and he showed it today. He made it all pay off for me. I took the risk and he made it pay off, he made the best of his opportunity.”

On getting the ball back before the half and putting up three points
“When they ran the ball I didn’t think there was enough time. I thought there was enough time to punt block or try to get return, and we just missed the return. Tom [Brady] did a great job of executing, getting us up there for the Hail Mary and that’s all we were trying to get. Either get to the 36 for the field goal or get a shot at the Hail Mary. We got the call and got the three points and we came right back with a touchdown so anytime you get that double score it’s huge.”

On Dan Bailey’s struggles, Ryan Succop’s success
“I can’t talk about Dan but I can sure talk about Ryan. He had a heck of a day and he was shocked on the extra point that he missed because that’s never… but he drilled that [48-yard field goal], had no doubt that he’d make that field goal which made it a two-score game and he’s been great for us all year.”

On the success from the Bucs’ pass rush at opportune times
“It was huge. I knew coming out of the opening date that tackling would be an issue. It is in December anyway because it’s so long, since the last game, since you tackle because you just don’t tackle in practice, you can’t. I was upset about the tackling in the first quarter but I really was happy with the pass rush and pushing those kicks back, that was huge the whole game.”

On how big it was having no turnovers
“The only thing we had was that drive starting with a penalty. That really ticked me off because we only had about 30 seconds off the clock because of that penalty but yeah, I think our team, especially offensively is really, they’re in sync. They know what we’re trying to get done and Tom did a great job of protecting the ball and making big plays.”

On the priority of getting Miller involved today
“None really. He’s the deep guy on that pattern, Tom read it out and hit him but it wasn’t designed to go to Scotty, it was designed to go to someone else.”

On how big this win was for the team
“It was huge. We had to do this, it was a big game for us. Guys did their job, they rested, guys took care of the virus and we came back clean, healthy and it showed up today. We were a very fresh team, I thought, in the fourth quarter.”

On the Bucs running more than they threw it today, if that was the game plan
“I think yes and no. I think games dictate how much you run it. What’s the score at the end of the third quarter, and we were leading so it led to more runs and [Ronald Jones II] ran it really, really well, especially that last drive. We wanted to set up some play action, didn’t hit as many as we hoped but when asked earlier this week about our identity, we just showed our identity. We can do any damn thing we want to do.”

On the offensive line’s performance
“Outstanding. They’ve been good and they’ve been good, knock on wood, when they’re healthy we’re good and those guys have been great. Just the dependability of all five of those guys being here every week has been fantastic.”

On the way Antoine Winfield Jr. has played this year
“He and Tristan [Wirfs] should be hitting the proverbial rookie wall about now and we joked about it all week but both of those kids are just mature beyond their years, especially in football acumen. Tristan has been playing lights out, I don’t know if there’s a better right tackle in the league, and right now Antoine is just so heady. He studies, he’s got his dad to lean on and he’s got all the coaches to lean on and he puts his time in.”

On the defense putting the game away today
“I thought two things. We stopped them, the offense came down and got the field goal that made it back a two-score game so we knew that it was hunting time for the defensive line and I just thought we got after them. Our secondary played good, we got after Kirk [Cousins] and he didn’t stand in the pocket very often very long. That’s what we can do. If we get rid of the running game, get them in a two-score game, that time in the ball game, we should be getting after them.”

On Winfield’s performance against a team he grew up rooting for and his dad played for, what it meant to him
“I’m sure he’s elated, the family’s probably elated, sure. When you see the team you grew up watching, your dad in the locker room, it’s huge. And I can remember when Peyton [Manning] played the Saints, it was the same thing. When he got the blitz sack I would have just loved to have seen us pick up that fumble and score but that was a great, great job from him.”

On any thought about going for a touchdown at the end of the half
“None. To get a chance at points, we were not going to take any chance of not come out with any points. It was a risk to do what we did and it paid off for three because we had the ball coming out for the second half, got the touchdown and it’s a 10-point swing.”

On how much this win helps in the wildcard race
“We got the tiebreaker on these guys and this is a good football team, they’re going to win some games down the stretch. We’re one day at a time and that’s what I just told the guys, it was a great win because it started on Tuesday. We had great practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then again this week’s different. We can’t meet Mondays and Tuesdays so we have another different way that we have to handle getting ready to play a ball game whether it’s virtual, however we have to get it done we’ll get it done, and just make sure that we take care of tomorrow’s business tomorrow.”

On the offense getting so few plays in the first quarter
“It’s frustrating because again, we had a manageable third, they dropped the coverage and we came back and hit Scotty and it was a good play by their defense. We went to the right guy and they just made a good play but yeah, it’s frustrating when they’re running the ball like that against our defense. We’re not used to that and it wasn’t anything scheme-wise, we were just missing tackles against a really good back and I think we cleaned that up and got better and better as we went along.