Garcia comes through for NFC

Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia was a late addition to the Pro Bowl, named to the NFC team as an alternate just a couple weeks ago.

Good thing.

Garcia engineered two late scoring drives that capped the NFC's 42-30 come-from-behind victory in the NFL's all-star game. On the first drive, Garcia ironically hooked up with former teammate Terrell Owens, with whom he had a rocky relationship in San Francisco. Garcia threw a 6-yard touchdown to Owens in the fourth quarter to put the NFC ahead. In fact, four of Garcia's eight completions went to Owens for 56 yards.
That's about as much as I can tell you because I slept through most of the affair. Guess that last dose of football will have to last me through the offseason. That's pretty much the last action until training camp.

Good luck dealing with the withdrawal.

Comments

[Stephen Blackehart]

It was amazing to see what Garcia can still do with some blocking and some real playmakers on the field! Those last two drives by Garcia's NFC offense were things of beauty.

[SCC]

It just goes to show you that no matter what anyone says about Garcia (T.O.)he is still a pro. with so much heart and pride on the field.

[mkurbo]

Garcia does not get enough respect here with the local media. He IS Pro Bowl caliber and was the best free agent pick-up last off-season in terms of what he did for his team by far. What a great job by Allen/Gruden did to bring him in and he will serve us well for another couples years at least. The drive-by sports media here wants to make an issue of his age, but us fans know a winner when we see one !

[DR]

Anybody can see that Garcia is a good player and was a good player before he got here. It's just a meaningless pro bowl anyways, its really a waste of time. Just ask Robert Edwards how meaningless the pro bowl is since it ended his career for no good reason.
I think Garcia will do well again next year, even at 39, but if the young offensive line doesn't improve big time, he will not last the season. The old man can still throw the ball, he just can't recover like he used to from the beating.

[Oliver]

Something I noticed about our Superbowl-winning season of 2002; Brad Johnson played in a similar style to Garcia. Ok, not quite so mobile around the pocket - but held onto the ball until the last possible second, thus spending a lot of time getting hit. Johnson was out for 3 or 4 games that season, similar to Garcia last year, and probably the same this season coming. My point is, that even with what you could argue as our best Buccaneer team ever, the Offensive Line even then was not impermeable - similarly with the one we have now.
The line is young, it will get better -a quality wide reciever is what we need!

[DR]

Oliver, i will agree to a certain extent because the giants did go on an unbelievable terror in the playoffs using a 4 man rush and wreaking havoc in the backfield. When Garcia did get some time, Galloway and company were covered.
The problem is, you would like to think progress will be made with the young players but the young offensive players in recent past have not gotten better, i.e. Clayton, Caddy, A.Smith, but in fact, their performances have declined.

[aaron]

holder and company, please write a new article. this has been up for days!!!!!

[Oliver]

DR, I would say that Alex Smith has been excellent in his time here. Ok, he hasn't had Pro Bowl numbers, but he catches just about everything he gets thrown, which is where Clayton has struggled. Smith, with a good quarterback (Garcia) running the offense, will excel.

Something that is irritating me about the Williams situation now is how quickly people have jumped on his back as a "failure". In his first season, he was excellent. In his second season, teams read the fact that we hadn't a legitimate passing attack (Gradkowski - rookie that year) and so gameplanned for him, stacking the box. This year, he was putting up good numbers and scoring, then got a horrific injury on a good run. He's been so unlucky with injuries, and now he has gone, people have nothing good to say about him. Graham had a fantastic season this year, with the a strong passing attack to balance things out. If Williams can return from his injury, those two in the backfield will be an excellent combination. Get well soon, Cadillac.