Jeff Garcia insists he only knows one way to play.
Benched earlier this season when Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden felt
the Gilroy native wasn’t playing with the same reckless abandon
that made him effective for the Buccaneers a year ago, the
three-time Pro Bowl quarterback is making the best of a second
chance.
TAMPA, FLA. – Jeff Garcia insists he only knows one way to play.
Benched earlier this season when Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden felt the Gilroy native wasn’t playing with the same reckless abandon that made him effective for the Buccaneers a year ago, the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback is making the best of a second chance.
Garcia improved to 4-1 since regaining his starting job on Sunday, improvising and making plays on the run to lead the Bucs to a 19-13 victory over Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings.
“He moves around and you don’t know what he’s seeing and what he’s thinking. That’s his game,” Gruden said. “He’s a creative player, and his legs are his ally. I’ve tried to be honest with him the whole time. We need his legs and we need his scramble ability, his elusiveness in the pocket.”
Even at 38 years old.
“It’s that Fountain of Youth I walk up to every single day, trying to keep myself as young as possible,” said Garcia, who threw for 255 yards and added 21 rushing, including a pair of scrambles for first downs on a long, go-ahead field goal drive in the fourth quarter.
“These type of games definitely wear on you,” he added. “I can’t play like this every single weekend, but there were opportunities for me to use my legs today.”
The quarterback’s mobility was the biggest reason the Bucs (7-3) were able to control the ball for more than 20 minutes in the second half, keeping Peterson off the field and hindering Minnesota’s chances of winning.
Peterson ran for 85 yards on 19 carries through three quarters, but his bid for a fifth consecutive 100-yard game fell short when the Vikings (5-5) ran just eight plays – none of them runs by the NFL’s leading rusher – in the fourth quarter.
The Bucs’ offense was mostly responsible, driving 69 yards and burning nearly nine minutes off the clock to take a 16-13 lead on Matt Bryant’s third field goal with just over five minutes left.
Minnesota fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, Tampa Bay recovered and Bryant added his fourth field goal for a six-point lead with 3:30 left. The Vikings had two opportunities to put together a winning drive, but turned the ball over on downs with 2:24 left and lost a fumble on their final possession.
“Tough outcome. We knew that we’d have to come down here and play error-free football,” Viking coach Brad Childress said. “Probably the only positive is that we’ve got a chance to win the NFC North. Everybody is 5-5.”
Bryant had field goals of 39, 26, 29 and 26 yards, and B.J. Askew scored the Bucs’ lone touchdown on a 1-yard run in the third quarter. Gus Frerotte threw a 3-yard TD pass to Bobby Wade and Ryan Longwell kicked field goals of 43 and 37 yards in the first half for Minnesota.
Peterson was coming off a 192-yard performance against Green Bay and was trying to match the Vikings’ franchise record for consecutive 100-yard games set by Robert Smith in 2000. He gained 51 yards on six carries, but wasn’t nearly as successful the rest of the day – gaining 14 yards on six attempts in the second half.
“Honestly, I thought the first half we did a pretty good job running the ball. But the second half, we didn’t have too many opportunities to run,” Peterson said. “It took us totally out of our game. I really think that was the difference.”
The Bucs’ defense embraced the challenge of facing Peterson for the first time. The unit did not allow a 100-yard rusher in the first eight weeks of the season, and were eager to redeem themselves after Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles stopped the streak.
“We forced them to throw the football. And when they did, they weren’t very effective doing so,” cornerback Ronde Barber said. “We knew we’d have to contain Peterson, and I thought we did a good job keeping him from getting going.”
Derrick Brooks made one of the biggest defensive plays, breaking up a deep pass intended for Peterson on fourth-and-1 from the Vikings 49, after Tampa Bay drove 80 yards to make it 13-all on Askew’s first career TD.
If the Bucs linebacker hadn’t been able to break up the pass, it might have gone for a game-changing touchdown.
“I thought we had that one,” said Frerotte, who completed 14 of 20 passes for 138 yards and was sacked five times. “That’s exactly where we wanted to go. I thought I threw a pretty good ball, but we just didn’t make the play.”
