Jeff Garcia says the Bucs turnaround starts today in practice when the clowning around must end

Battered and bruised Jeff Garcia was kind enough to grant Joe some one-on-one time after Sunday’s beating at home by the Chargers.

Garcia was not among the many Bucs players hanging their heads after the game. He believes deeply in the team and its ability to put together a strong performance on both sides of the ball against Oakland, and in the playoffs.

Q. As a captain of the Buccaneers and a veteran of many playoff teams, what will you do specifically to get the Bucs ready for Sunday’s must-win game against Oakland?

It starts with the week of preparation on Wednesday. It starts with coming out on Wednesday with the highest focus possible. Putting all the clowning around and distractions aside and we focus on being better as a team, and that takes accountability from each and every player. I have to look in the mirror and look at myself and see what I can do help this be a better team and finish on a positive note. And I think it’s important that everybody takes that approach.

What does it mean to you to play against Oakland on Sunday and have San Francisco Bay area fans get a chance to watch you play on television?

I’ve been fortunate to have such great support from the Bay area throughout my career. For them to have an opportunity to see what I’m doing on the field, it is important to me. It doesn’t really change my focus to try to be better this week than last week, or the previous week. I always strive to perform at a high level. It will be a great opportunity for everybody back home to see what I’m still doing, and hopefully they see what I’m doing at a high level. 

Will you continue to play after this season? How do you approach your future as a player?

I really try not to focus too much on what’s going to happen in the future. I’m really trying to make the most of this opportunity right now. What’s in store for next season, I haven’t even thought about. Whether I’ll continue to play is even up in the air. Right now it’s wanting to finish this season off the best way possible. Hopefully, give ourselves a chance to continue in the postseason. When the offseason comes I will re-evaluate my situation. And I will take the input from my family, because that is most important for me, and go from there.

Can you believe the Buccaneers are 9-6?

It’s really unfortunate, to have been 9-3 at one point. We really had the season in the palm of our hands as far as what we were capable of controlling. We’ve let ourselves down. We let people down around the way that we’ve played unfortunately over the past three weeks. We just haven’t played good team football. We’ve exposed ourselves to mistakes or critical errors at unfortunate times, and we haven’t been able to overcome them. We’ve found ourselves struggling to find a way to win a football game. We are capable of better. And that’s what we have to focus on for this week.  

While the Bucs have lost three in a row, the offense has been improved in your last two starts. What’s better?

I think, at times, when we have an opportunity to spread the defense out and get a chance to go down the field, I think it opens up some opportunities for our offense to be a little bit more explosive. To have plays that get down the field and create positive results. We did that against Carolina. We did that a little bit [on Sunday against San Diego]. I think there were more opportunities that unfortunately we were a little bit off on that could have had great results. When you do those things, there is a potential for more explosiveness and touchdowns.