ucs/Falcons quotebooks

BUCCANEERS

Coach Jon Gruden:

"To come on the road and win in this league is a difficult thing, particularly when you are playing a great team coming off a bye week. I thought our team showed a lot of resiliency."

Safety Dexter Jackson on his crunching hit on Glen Kozlowski on a fake punt:

"It felt great. You absorb a lot of the punishment when you hit someone like that, but it was a turnover-causing hit."

Tackle Warren Sapp on this defense compared with the one at the end of the '99 season:

"This is the beginning of 2002. That's where we have to keep our focus. A lot of guys aren't here who were here in '99: D-Rob (Damien Robinson), Pep (Brad Culpepper), Chidi (Ahanotu), a lot of guys. But we have other bullets that are just as deadly. Coach says there should be an investigation, because it looks like there are 12 of us out there."

Safety John Lynch on the Bucs' first win in the NFC South:

"We needed a division win. We'd won three in a row, but our first loss was to a division opponent. We didn't want that to happen again."

Cornerback Ronde Barber on the defensive line:

"The guys up front are just incredible. Every one of them. Right now, they're making the rest of our jobs easier. They're the best in the business. If we can handle No. 7 (Michael Vick), we can handle anybody."

Barber on the defense scoring in four straight games:

"That's ridiculous. That's insane."

Defensive end Simeon Rice on catching up to quarterback Michael Vick:

"Hey, man, we're fast. We have a very formidable front four."

FALCONS

Quarterback Michael Vick on the injury to his non-throwing shoulder when sacked by Simeon Rice:

"It's not that bad. It's really sore right now. I can't really lift my arm up. I've never really been hit like that, where a guy falls on top of me."

Coach Dan Reeves:

"When you put in the week of work that we put in and then you don't get the job done, it hurts. Everybody in that locker room is hurting."

Vick on the Bucs defense:

"They locked up and just played us straight up. They were tough. They were good. I don't think they were that fast. They were just good."

Running back T.J. Duckett:

"Their speed is unbelievable. They are just everywhere."