Daily diary with Roman Oben

Bucs left tackle Roman Oben seemed a lot more at ease in Thursday's media session than he was 24 hours earlier. Nothing like a little live football to make a man happy.

Oben said the fact that the team returned to practice and has been given the game book for Sunday has re-energized the squad.

"You can turn your attention to the game and refocus," he said. "It's a game. It's the Wednesday practice before the game. We put in our runs, our base blitz protections, all that stuff."

The players' schedule looks like this:

8:30 to 9:30 a.m. -- news conference.

9:30 to 11:30 -- meetings and walk-throughs.

11:30 to 1 p.m. -- lunch, then rest.

1 to 1:30 -- meetings to go over the walk-through film.

1:30 to 3 -- get taped, bus to practice.

3 p.m. until ... -- practice.

Meetings vary after practice but players are off for dinner. Curfew is midnight.

"We've been putting in 11-hour days Wednesday and Thursday, but it's part of the deal," Oben said. "I've been like an outsider looking in watching the press conferences and watching ESPN the whole week and it's amazing. You know, when you talk to guys who have played in the Super Bowl, you have no idea what they're talking about. Now, you know. It could be overwhelming, as far as time and energy, but you really have to be a professional."

Oben said he worked out after practice, watched more film, had dinner at the hotel and watched the movie Men of Honor before falling asleep.