Starting to look like McCown vs. Falcons

Quarterback Jeff Garcia was just standing around during stretching and did not participate in any warmups with the team Friday.

The Bucs starter has been limited in practice this week after injurying his right calf -- the same one that kept him out of training camp and much of the preseason.

It appears that Luke McCown could be under center for the critical game at Atlanta Sunday. McCown has not taken a regular-season snap. It's somewhat similar to last season when he started at New Orleans and won an important NFC South game that  propelled the Bucs to the playoffs.

Tampa Bay can clinch a post-season spot with a win at Atlanta and a loss by either Philadelphia or Dallas.

Check back for further updates on Garcia's status following practice.

      

Comments

[shane]

Ridiculous!

[Kurt]

Lucky Gruden keeps all these QB's around. Now we see why.

[OAR]

Shane, What's ridiculous? Garcia hurting himself(AGAIN) with no contact or McCown starting(look for more long passes)

[Erick]

McCown has a cannon but may lead to a few turnovers. but OAR is right, we should see a bit more downfield action. He can run too!

[shane]

Garcia getting hurt at practice OAR. Dont want to hear about some guy that throws great long ball that hasnt started all year unless you tell me Galloway is getting 30 snaps along side Bryant. Bucs are basically DONE if they dont in Atlanta because that would all but give Carolina division(they will only lose 1 of remaining 3 games). I dont want to hear about wildcard crap cause they will be 1 or 2 and done playing on the road.

[BBFan10]

I have to agree, there is no reason Galloway cannot learn 10 new plays and play at the same time as Bryant half the time. We have 2 players with speed that can stretch the field (Galloway and Jackson) and neither of them ever plays. I like McCown's arm, he just needs to go through his progressions quickly and get rid of the ball if nobody is open or run like heck.

[OAR]

Shane, Don't fret so much about McCown. He did exactly the same thing last year. He hadn't "started" all year and came in when Garcia got hurt(shocker) and beat the Saints 27-23(to lock in a playoff spot). As for Carolina, Im a co-Bronco fan this weekend.

[skp]

look for the RBs to have more room to run now that we have a QB who's a threat in the 10-25 yard range - this might work in our favor for at least one game...

[Tom M]

Hopefully McCown matured quite a bit from the last couple of seasons. He was great last year for 80% of the games I saw him play. But his 20% was destructive. Wrong time for Garcia to be hurt. Good luck Luke. We are all counting on you!

[eric(bucsfan4life)]

FYI we run the west coast offense which is buit for slants and run after the catch with the occasional long ball we are not Indy, or the patriots. Our recievers have to catch across the middle and earn YAC

[Miami Vex]

you people wow... we are done we suck Luke Mckown sucks grow up . The Bucs control their Destiny if the play like they did for the whole first half of last Mondays game they shold have no proble against a shoddy at best Atlanta defense. If the Defense plays the way they know how to and gets after Ryan we should have no problem getting the win... even if dr was the Q.B. We could win! GO Bucs Go Defense, Defense wins Championships

[Dave]

More importantly... is Barber going to be replaced by Talib? Because that would be a huge help!

[BucNA]

Barber will be fine. The D will be fine.
As long as Luke can avoid the negative plays, he (and the O) should be fine.
The D had a game like this against the Raiders before the NFC title game run and vs the Steelers before the Superbowl run. Great teams bounce back. We will find out Sunday if the Bucs are a playoff team or just pretenders.