Morris expects injured Bucs back for game with Jags

The Bucs should be a little closer to full strength when they take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in their second exhibition game Saturday.

With the exception of wide receiver Antonio Bryant, the Bucs hope to have most of their injured regulars back in action for that game.

"That's the good news,'' Bucs Coach Raheem Morris said in the wake of the Bucs 27-20 loss to Tennessee. "A lot of those guys will be back [Monday].''

Morris said he expects to have cnter Jeff Faine (groin), wide receiver Michael Clayton (hamstring) and linebacker Angelo Crowell (hamstring) back on Monday.

The only regulars whose status remains uncertain are punter Josh Bidwell (hip), placekicker Matt Bryant (hamstring).

Morris said those two players a few players who were hurt in Saturday's loss will be re-evaluated on Thursday.

Among the players hurt during the loss to the Titans were PR/KR/WR Dexter Jackson (ankle), S Will Allen (shoulder), CB Torrie Cox (wrist), CB Kyle Arrington (groin), S Donte Nicholson (quad), LB Ron Wilson (hamstring), LB Matt McCoy (ankle), T Demar Dotson (knee).

Morris said none of the injuries were serious, but some players may need to wait until at least Thursday before returning to the field.

"Not bad for a preseason game and a physical training camp,'' said Morris, who was generally pleased with the play of his team.

Morris said the highlights were the play of the first-team defense and the play of all of his quarterbacks.

Morris expressed disappointment in the number of balls that hit the ground Saturday, in the play early on of the offensive line.

"Early on you saw Earnest (Graham) get the ball a little bit, but he couldn't find any holes because we missed a couple of the backside cutoff blocks,'' Morris said.

"It's hard to execute that in practice because you can't cut in practice, so you don't get a real good feel for it.

"We got better as the game went along and you saw some guys execute some things, take one more step, follow through.

"You saw us get some people on the ground, and that's when you saw 'Peanut' [Clifton Smith] hit some of those holes and you actually saw Derrick Ward hit some of the holes when he got in. But Earnest got the bad lick of it because we were just getting used to it.''