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Garcia Preferred Starter, But Bucs Weigh Options

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By ROY CUMMINGS rcummings@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 18, 2008

TAMPA - The Bucs know precisely who they want their starting quarterback to be for Sunday's critical game against the Chargers. They just don't know with any certainty if Jeff Garcia will be able to play.

Though he is leaning toward starting Garcia, Bucs coach Jon Gruden couldn't say for sure Wednesday that Garcia's sore calf will allow him to stick to his preferred game plan.

Therefore, the Bucs are preparing more than one game plan and more than one potential starting quarterback for this week's game.

"We have good reason to do that," Gruden said. "We have an obvious injury at the quarterback position, and it's a little more serious than we all thought."

How much more serious? Garcia said Wednesday he feared he might have done season-ending damage had he played last week at Atlanta. He also said he has improved markedly and intends to play Sunday.

"I feel fine," Garcia said after taking the majority of the first-team reps in the Bucs' morning walkthrough. "I feel like I can do more now. I know I'm heading in the right direction."

Wednesday, Garcia took enough reps and looked good enough taking them to leave Gruden optimistic about his chances of playing Sunday.

"He looked better," Gruden said. "But again, with this injury, it's going to be a day-to-day situation. So we'll do the best we can to get the next guy ready to go."

Gruden wouldn't say who that next guy would be. The likelihood, though, is that it would be Brian Griese.

Gruden continued to defend Griese's play against the Falcons. He took four critical sacks, but Griese completed 26 of 37 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown, while playing for the first time in eight weeks.

"You don't complete 27 passes for nearly 300 yards if you're not a pretty good player," Gruden said. "Brian Griese is not the reason we lost that game. We have a number of things we have to do better."

Like scoring in the red zone. The Bucs are 31st in the league. Stopping the run is another. The Bucs have allowed 474 rushing yards the last two weeks.

There's a chance that latter problem gets rectified, though, as defensive tackles Chris Hovan and Jovan Haye returned to work Wednesday. The Bucs are also hopeful that linebacker Derrick Brooks (ribs) will play.

"You know Derrick," Gruden said. "He's going to find a way to the field."

He can only hope the same holds true for Garcia.

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