Germaine's wife, Natalie, gave birth to the couple's second son in an Arizona hospital on Sunday. Blaze coach Danny White said the boy will be named Crew. The Germaines also have a 3-year-old boy named Jackson.

Germaine has been in his hometown of Mesa, Ariz., since early Sunday and is scheduled to return to Salt Lake City tonight. He is expected to be at practice on Wednesday.

That meant backup quarterback Jason Gesser got all the reps on Tuesday, and White said Gesser performed well but was not altogether happy with how the day went.

"He is all upset now because he doesn't think the guys were running routes as hard as they run them for Joe," White said, smiling.

"Seriously, he was mad because guys weren't getting open."

The coach said it was a typical Tuesday practice and the players meant no disrepect to Gesser.

"Everybody [was] lethargic and energy is down a little bit," White said. "That's very normal. Too bad it came on Jason's big day."

They're not out of it. Having improved their record to 2-9, the Blaze can take a peek at their playoff chances now, White said.

With five games remaining, the Blaze will need to win three more to make postseason play, the coach believes. Grand Rapids has three wins, while Colorado, Los Angeles and Arizona have four wins.

"We have to catch [one of those four teams]," he said. "We looked at all their schedules. Nobody has a really tough schedule and nobody has a real easy schedule."

The remaining opponents on Utah's schedule are San Jose (6-5), Chicago (8-2), Grand Rapids (3-7), Los Angeles (4-7) and Arizona (4-6).

"Having said that, we are not looking past San Jose as a [chance] for a win," White said. "We have every belief in the world that we can beat them."