On how Mike Evans responded after his last matchup with James Bradberry: "Bradberry definitely got the best of Mike in that last game. He played a heck of game. Mike was a little banged up in that game. Mike's always played well against Carolina in the past. That game was not indicative of how Mike's played against Carolina. Definitely not his best, and Bradberry got the best of that one."
On Jameis Winston's performance vs. 49ers: "Jameis played very well last week. Played turnover-free football, went to the – made good decisions all day and did the things that quarterbacks in this league have to do to win."
On instability at quarterback: "I don't think we have instability. I mean, I've switched quarterbacks but I don't look at that as instability. I look at it as we have more than one guy that has shown he can play at this level and has done it at this level. We just have to play more consistent at the quarterback position, and there's plenty of teams in that boat."
On leading the league in passing yards but also turnovers: "Turnovers and the turnover margin is the number one factor in winning and losing football games in the NFL, and we go over it every single week. We will continue to do it. We do it based on our own team, based on the opponents that we play. Last week we did a great job of protecting the ball, our defense got two takeaways and we got the win. When you don't do that, no matter how many yards you have, when you don't win the turnover battle it's going to be hard to win."
On what he's seen from Carolina's receiving corps: "As I said last time we played you guys, I think we're – I noticed the biggest change in Carolina between this year and previous years is they've really increased their speed on the outside. Between (DJ) Moore, (Curtis) Samuel, (Jarius) Wright, (Torrey) Smith when he's healthy, I'm going to include (Devin) Funchess in that. I know he didn't play last week. The talent and depth at wide receiver – the talent, depth and speed at wide receiver I think really complements their already outstanding run game."
On if he sees Carolina's wide receivers stretching the field horizontally as opposed to vertically: "I haven't looked at it like that. You could be right. I think they're just running what their new normal offense is. They're doing a lot of option-based football with the quarterback, with the running back, and then they've got a lot of complementary plays off it. They're a big misdirection team. One of the best misdirection teams that we've played, probably the best. The horizontal, vertical thing, I don't know. I think one of Cam's best things is throwing the deep ball but that's just my opinion."
On if he feels the Buccaneers are better equipped for Carolina's misdirection plays this week: "Well we were ready for them last time, we just didn't stop them. Being ready for them and doing something about it is two different things. They torched us on misdirection last time and believe it or not, we did work on it. We just didn't execute anywhere close to well enough against their misdirection game last time we played them."
On if failure to stop misdirection plays was the biggest takeaway from the first matchup: "Well that was up there, but I mean again, we got off to a horrible start turning the ball over on offense. As I said before, their number, sheer number of playmakers that they have – it wasn't that many years ago that their main playmakers were Cam (Newton) and (Greg) Olsen. I mean just look at the number of playmakers they've added over the last year and a half."
On how the Panthers have utilized Christian McCaffrey: "The stat that jumps out, he's playing almost every snap. For a guy that's touching the ball as much as him, I think the number we had was he played 96 percent of the snaps last week and he's getting the ball in so many different ways. I talk about the speed, everything goes through Cam, but I mean when he's got 220-something yards and two touchdowns...I mean, how do you not say he's a guy you have to stop? And the fact that he hardly ever goes out of the game, it's impressive."
On what defensive position group Christian McCaffrey puts the most pressure on: "I'd say your linebackers and your safeties because with their misdirection run game, your linebackers and safeties have to fit the run properly. When they put him in the passing game, you're not going to cover him with your corners so it falls on the linebackers and the safeties to cover him based on if you're playing man or zone. He's such a good route runner. He can run routes like a slot receiver."
On the connection between Jameis Winston and tight end Cameron Brate: "For whatever reason, when Jameis first came and started playing for us, he and Cam were really the first two to really have chemistry together. Even before Jameis and Mike, even though Mike has bigger numbers and bigger stats. Cam and Jameis have just kind of always had that connection. I think Jameis has it with several guys on our team right now, but he's just had it with Cam the longest and we miss O.J. (Howard) for sure, but Cam still a really good player for us at tight end. He's had his most success in the red zone, but with O.J. out, he's going to get more opportunities all over the field."
