Question: A 33-14 victory for the Colts over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the RCA Dome on Sunday. Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy on Sunday called it one of the most gratifying of his career because of the circumstances. Do you feel the same?

Answer: It surely was. It was a great performance by a gutty group of men who went out there very much undermanned, but I’m not sure they knew that. Nobody told them. Tony certainly didn’t and I didn’t. They went out there and did their level best. It was more than good enough. Defensively, we really dominated the game and offensively, we really did more than enough to salt it away relatively early. Tampa Bay was missing (running back) Cadillac Williams, and that’s a big, big part of their offense. That’s their home-run hitter. Interestingly enough, we though they would come out and try to run the ball pretty much the way everybody else has against us, but I think they felt with Cadillac they really didn’t have much chance to do that. They got out of the running game early and it became a passing game, but because we controlled the ball so much, we were in position to salt it away relatively early.

Q: The defense stopped Tampa Bay early, forcing a three-and-out on the game’s first possession. How much of a turning point was that, considering it came so early?

A: Great momentum, because if you recall (wide receiver) Craphonso Thorpe gave us a pretty darned good punt return. We set up in great position and we took it in to take the lead. When we score early and we’re in the lead at our place, it’s always tough for the opposition to come back because of the noise and the fact that our defense can fly. That puts us in the ideal position. That was an extremely important series right off the bat. It also convinced them, I think, that, “It’s going to be very difficult to run the ball today.”

Q: After reviewing the tape, did you see anything different than you did during the game Sunday?

A: Not really, except I thought that (backup running back) Kenton Keith really made some great cuts that I wasn’t aware of Sunday. There were a couple or three cuts he made that were really big, big time that netted him an additional five-to-seven yards. It doesn’t look spectacular because it’s always in traffic, but someone said, ‘Wow, there’s a Joseph (Addai) move.’ He jumped around a tackle and took it up for seven more yards. He doesn’t have the finishing power Joseph does. Very few people do, but boy, I’ll tell you what: he finishes every run, and he really has exceptional feet.

Q: The Colts typically don’t like to get in 2nd-and-long too often. On Sunday, they were in that situation, but seemed to get out of it most times into 3rd-and-manageable . . .

A: We were able to get positive yards even when we were in second-and-long. We were able to get positive yards – move the ball, then ultimately move the chains. We converted a lot of third and shorts, which was very good, and we converted them with the running game, which was even better. On the one misdirection play in the fourth quarter, if Kenton had had his legs – he was about out of gas at that point – I think he would have taken that thing in. As it was, we ended up short about six inches and kicked the field goal. If he’d had his legs, he might have gone the distance. It was just gratifying that we were able to be so efficient offensively against a defense that makes you be efficient. After all, it’s the same scheme we use – albeit, with a few wrinkles here or there. But the idea is to make you go the long way and be efficient and capitalize if you turn the ball over. They were only able to do that once, and we were able to control the game because of it.

Q: The noise at the RCA Dome Sunday was a big factor. The crowd at the dome has become a huge advantage for the Colts, hasn’t it?

A: Extremely so and that has been the case for about the past three years. It seems to get better every week. That’s great and we’re going to need that. It has an effect. There was a period there in the first quarter when (Buccaneers quarterback Jeff) Garcia had to go around individually to each player and tell him what the audible was. That’s a good thing. It disrupts offensive timing. It gives our defense a better picture of what’s going to happen and it makes it tougher for them to snap the ball. I thought the crowd was as good as it has been and just like the team, it is on the uptick.

Q: What was the biggest play late in the game?

A: It’s a tough one to choose. There were a couple of good ones, but I’ll have to go with (Colts safety) Antoine Bethea’s interception. The ball was deflected and it took a lot of ball skills and good hands to pick it off. Then he made a nice return on it and finally recognized that the clock was running out, so he took a rest. But it was a really good play.

Q: He played well the entire game. He had 12 tackles.

A: He surely did. He played great.

Q: Doesn’t it seem as if the referees are calling fewer penalties on which defenders rough the quarterback this season?

A: I would tend to agree. The (NFL) Competition Committee took the exact opposite position. (Miami Dolphins quarterback) Trent Green’s play, by the way, is of no consequence. He was down on the ground apparently attempting to block, so he was not protected by the rules in that situation. (Colts quarterback) Peyton (Manning) got drilled in the head earlier in the year and they let it go. The officiating department said, ‘No, we don’t want that called.’ We didn’t get the memo on that apparently. In any event, that has been liberalized a little bit, although that was not the case in the Monday Night game last week. There was a little love tap on the quarterback’s shoulder and it was called. You’ve heard me say before that consistency is the hobgoblin we have to deal with in officiating. That was never more clear than Sunday, by the way. You had two teams (Colts and Buccaneers) that preach and coach penalty avoidance and a crew of officials that was on top of every play. You had a great game and a quick game. The question you ask yourself is, ‘Why can’t you have that every week?’ It’s puzzling. In any event, my impression is it’s a little more liberal now. We’ll know at the end of the year. Sometimes, your impression when you see snippets of games here and there is not true when you research the data.

Q: Why are there so few Monday Night games in the RCA Dome?

A: NBC told us they don’t like us at home, because we tend to win by rather large scores and that doesn’t make for good TV. Monday Night is ESPN and I think we’re only on once – Jacksonville. They chose Jacksonville as the host there. That’s partially the schedule-maker and partly television and partly how they juxtapose the schedule and fit every game in. It tends to run a little bit in cycles. We’ve had our share of Monday Night games at home, I think, and this year it tends to go the other way. The one anomaly that I fi