Buccs waiting on Garcia

Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans are crossing fingers, clutching lucky clovers and rubbing rabbits' feet this week, in the hope that QB Jerry Garcia recovers from injury in time for Sunday's critical game against the Chargers. Bucs coach Jon Gruden couldn't say for sure on Wednesday whether Garcia's sore calf will allow him to stick to his preferred game plan and so he is preparing for every eventuality.
"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."
Garcia, who claimed it felt season-ending against Atlanta on Sunday, has now changed to a more optimistic tune. "I feel fine," Garcia said. "I feel like I can do more now. I know I'm heading in the right direction."
If that changes between now and the weekend, Gruden will most likely call upon Brian Griese, who took four critical sacks, but completed 26 of 37 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown, while playing for the first time in eight weeks against the Falcons.
"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."
At least some of the other problem areas are sorting themselves out for the Buccs, with defensive tackles Chris Hovan and Jovan Haye returning to work, they are also hopeful that linebacker Derrick Brooks will play.