The Day After: Shaq Thompson's speech

[Sir Purr]

"I would say my tone and message is probably different every week, every day. I should say my tone is different. My message is always the same, it just comes down to where we are, and how did we play," Rhule said. "What I want to get out of everyone on our team's head, it's not like (being) flat, it's not like all these emotional things. We played the first half, it was 17-17, we played good football, not great football. And it was a two-score game going into the fourth quarter. We've been down two scores and come back and won, it just got away from us. . . .


"A lot of our young players are doing some great things. So I just try to talk to each player individually, as their own person, and just communicate, 'Here's what's expected and here's where I think you can improve.'


"The one thing I'm trying to get across to them is if we're coaching you, we think you're a really good player. If we're telling you what you're doing right and you're doing wrong and what you can do better, we think you're a good player and continue to play even better. That's an emphasis for us."


Rookie defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos was caught out of position on an aggressive play-call against the run, and a missed tackle behind him later, Bucs running back Ronald Jones had gone 98 yards for a touchdown. It stood as evidence of the collective nature of defense Rhule's trying to preach (each player has to do their job well for it to work), or as he said simply Monday: "We have to be more precise, and more detailed than we were."