The Bucs QB is impressive when he holds onto the football, but he is prone to fourth-quarter miscues.
By RICK STROUD
Published December 19, 2004
TAMPA - Brian Griese can throw the football deep, he can throw it short, he can throw it with smoke or he can throw it with a velvet touch.
All that's left for the Bucs quarterback to learn is how to throw it away.
Griese is second in the NFL with a 69.6 completion percentage, but it's his rare bouts of inaccuracy that have contributed to several losses this season.
Eight of Griese's nine interceptions have come in the last five games, and a third of those have been in the final quarter.
"It's not nitpicking," quarterbacks coach John Shoop said. "The ball is the most important part of the game. He's not a careless quarterback. He's a competitive quarterback. He really feels he can go 50-for-50. You know what? I think he can, too. But you've got to weigh all that, and sometimes the best thing to do is throw the ball away."
Though still effective, Griese has been at his worst when the Bucs need his best. His quarterback rating in the fourth quarter (82.2) is more than 20 points lower than in quarters one through three (105.3).
Two of his interceptions have been returned for touchdowns. Last weekend at San Diego, Chargers linebacker Donnie Edwards stepped in front of a pass intended for rookieMichael Clayton and returned it 30 yards for the decisive score with four minutes left.
Two weeks ago Griese attempted a screen pass toMichael Pittman that Carolina's Julius Peppers intercepted and returned 46 yards to score and break a 7-7 tie in the third. The Bucs lost both games by a touchdown.
"You've got to be able to make the right decisions," Griese, 29, said. "And at the end of the day, when you throw a pick with four minutes left in the game and you lose the game, you have to stand up and acknowledge it and answer the questions.
"I'm not going to make excuses. You can't throw interceptions. I try to build on the things that I do well, and as a microcosm, as a team, you try to build on things you do well and you learn from things that you don't do well. ... "I looked at each one of them and learned from them and go forward. Hopefully in those situations, it won't happen again."
According to coach Jon Gruden, many of Griese's interceptions have come on what he terms "blind throws." That means he never had a chance to see the receiver, either because he had a defender in his face or he was off balance.
"As a quarterback you probably throw 15 to 20 percent of your passes in a game when you don't see guys," Griese said. "I mean, that's just the way it is. You have linemen in front of you and a lot of the balls you complete, some of them are blind throws. When you throw interceptions, it's blind throws. Some of the times you throw interceptions, it's not. That's just the game."
Griese's collapse in the fourth quarter at San Diego - he also lost a fumble - ruined what otherwise could have been a record performance. He connected on 36 of 50 passes, the second most completions in team history, and tied a career best with three touchdowns.
"He's just got to get into the mind-set that, "I've got to see the throw, too,' " Shoop said. "When you get that unconscious feeling, you think you can complete every ball. That's definitely the attitude we want. He's just got to balance it."
Of course, the Bucs have relied too much on Griese lately. Most of the time he has delivered, throwing at least one touchdown in all nine games he has played this season. He is third in the NFC with a 99.4 efficiency rating.
But his ball security has become an issue of late.
"He's had a couple picks where he would tell you, he probably didn't need to do that," Gruden said. " ... But in my lifetime, it's hard to have 70 percent completions in 275 attempts, so I'm trying to emphasize the positive and we're going to try to clean up some of the decisions, the blind throws that he's made."
Griese has just one fourth-quarter rally this season - a 34-31 win over Kansas City. Another ended at Carolina when Martin Gramatica missed his third field goal.
One thing he has provided is the deep ball. Griese has 29 completions of 20 yards or more, including 10 to Clayton.
"We threw 50 passes the other day, he completed 36, (and) if you want to be honest he had three or four balls dropped, two or three tipped," Gruden said. "With clean throwing lanes he's got a chance to walk out of there with 40 completions plus. That's pretty good." But at times, because of the interceptions, it has not been good enough.
"Any time you're playing quarterback, you've got to value the ball with your life, and Brian clearly understands that all of our lives depend on that ball," Shoop said. " ... He threw a few balls in there where you hold your breath and all of a sudden it's a big-time completion. ... So you've got to be able to balance that, and he's a smart enough guy to be able to do that."
