Chucky's chalk talk

Bucs coach Jon "Chucky" Gruden on today's opponent, the Eagles:

On the Eagles' effective blitzes:

"You'll see games where it's back to back to back to back blitzes. And they're different blitzes. There's other games where they played more of a conventional style of defense. I think it just depends on the mood of (Eagles defensive coordinator) Jim Johnson. But you've got to deal with pressure. At the same time, you have to apply pressure offensively. You just can't stick your head in the sand and say, 'Come and get us.' You've got to be able to pick up the blitzes or you can't compete in this game.

"We can play a lot better than we did in October. They presented some problems for us, not only structurally but physically. We've got to be much better in terms of the man-to-man pickups and who has who in the heat of the battle."

On whether to run or pass first against the Eagles:

"However you can move the ball and win games. Again, that's what I learned where I came from. They just say win, baby. Run it, throw it, play good defense. Find a way to just win, baby. It stuck with me."

On how the pundits do not give the Bucs a chance:

"It's like it's 24-0 and we haven't even gotten off the bus yet. Isn't that great? We were 0-21 in cold weather. Then we won the game and everybody is writing we're 1-21. Thanks a lot. I appreciate that. You can make Tiger Woods a D player if you want to. I could write a story. I could follow him around and study him and probably say when he plays Augusta in the second round, on the fourth hole the guy is one over on the fourth hole in the last six years. The hacker. Choke. I can find some negative stats like that."