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Gruden's Approach: Rest Over Rust

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 25, 2007

Updated: 12/24/2007 07:44 pm

TAMPA - One game at a time. That's what the coaches and the captains preach inside the Bucs locker room. It's their mantra.

They'll repeat it again this week, just like always. Just don't expect Coach Jon Gruden and his staff to practice what they preach. Not this week.

The Bucs have a playoff game coming up. In two weeks they'll play the New York Giants at Raymond James Stadium.

As much as he wants to concentrate on his game Sunday against Carolina, as much as he needs to concentrate on it, Gruden can't help but look ahead.

"We'll do the best we can to work hard this week for Carolina," he said. "But we'll try to budget a little time to take a peek at the Giants."

May as well. After all, the Bucs have been looking ahead to the playoffs since early last week.

That's when they made the plan to limit the amount of playing time they would dole out to key starters such as quarterback Jeff Garcia.

Garcia played less than a half during what proved to be a 21-19 loss to the 49ers on Sunday. He could play even less against the Panthers.

The reason: the playoffs. Gruden wants his top players healthy and if that means resting them now and losing, then so be it.

"We were going to use the last two games of the regular season to get some young players an opportunity to play, because that's a great teacher - experience," Gruden said.

"Quincy Black, Adam Hayward, Jeremiah Trotter - we might need these guys in the playoffs. So that was the plan going into the game Sunday at San Francisco. And that will certainly be the plan to a degree this week."

It's not an easy plan to adopt, Gruden said. As their game Sunday at San Francisco proved, the chances of winning with such a plan are lessened. But it's a plan Gruden has used with great success before.

In 2002, with a playoff berth secure, Gruden started Shaun King and then Rob Johnson in the last two games of the regular season, opting to rest starting quarterback Brad Johnson. The Bucs went on to win the Super Bowl.

Gruden isn't ready to predict a repeat performance for these Bucs. Not right now. These Bucs have too many flaws, many of which showed up Sunday in San Francisco, even while the regulars were still in the game.

Dropped passes were perhaps the biggest problem. Gruden counted six, including at least one by regular receivers Ike Hilliard and Michael Clayton, and at least one by regular tight end Alex Smith.

Poor red-zone play was another problem. Garcia has worried about that for weeks and Gruden is growing concerned as well, especially after watching his team fall from 22nd to 26th in the league in red-zone touchdown percentage.

Even the defense's red-zone play is a problem. The Bucs are ranked 27th in that category, and in their past two road games they have allowed their opponents to score a touchdown on three of their four red-zone tries.

"The scoring zone is big," Gruden said. "You have to score touchdowns down there offensively and you've got to get off the field without giving up touchdowns defensively. We've got to tighten it up on both sides."

The Bucs also need to tighten up a punt return unit that put the ball on the ground three times at San Francisco and an offensive line that struggled in pass protection Sunday and failed to develop a rhythm in the running game.

With so many areas to shore up, it's hard to imagine the Bucs looking too far ahead. That's why it may actually be a good thing that they have a game between now and the playoffs against an opponent Gruden considers formidable.

"We'll look at the Giants a little bit, but we have to respect the Panthers," said Gruden, whose team was looking at some new punt return candidates on Monday at One Buc Place.

"The Panthers are still a very talented football team and we're going to finish the season as we started it - preparing hard for every opponent and going out there and playing to win."

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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