Because I know you're all holding your breath, here's the deal: Jeff Garcia has a lower back bruise and likely will be considered day to day as the Bucs begin preparations for next Sunday's game at New Orleans.

Garcia played only 10 snaps against Washington today, even though coach Jon Gruden said team trainers were convinced he could not do further damage to the injury by playing through it.

The reason Gruden left Garcia on the sidelines as long as he did -- inserting him on the game's next-to-last offensive series -- was because the coach wasn't convinced Garcia would have enough mobility to play. He also was concerned the injury would be a mental distraction for Garcia.

"He's tough as heck," Gruden said. "He wanted to go back in and play several times. He just didn't have the mobility. He just didn't look right on the sidelines."

Meanwhile, while waiting for Gruden to decide to let him into the lineup, Garcia was growing impatient. But he acknowledged that he felt a lot of discomfort.

"I am sore right now," he said afterward. "It was a painful day, but one that we can fortunately smile about with the outcome of the game. I just took a shot in the lower back, right between the rib cage and the hip bone, almost like a kidney shot and it was pretty deep. I feel like I just bruised muscles that weren't allowing me to loosen up or use those back muscles. It felt like when I tried to bend over, try to utilize my back, it felt like it was giving out."

In the end, I'd be surprised if this injury is muhc of a factor this week. Knowing Garcia, he'll fight through it. Hopefully Jon Gruden has more of an update in Monday morning's press conference. We'll bring you the details on that, as usual.