He put up a pretty nice passer rating last night, and he didn’t make any big mistakes, and ESPN is declaring that Rex Grossman “has his groove back.” But I’m not buying it. Not yet. What he did last night, he did against a group of defensive linemen that wear tampons. There was never any pressure on Grossman, the offense was clearly designed to give him quick, one-read options, and his downfield looks were extremely, extremely limited. They might as well have gone with Brian Griese … because what Grossman did last night was very Brian Griese-esque.
And he still only completed just over 50% of his passes. He was 13-of-23 for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. I’m not saying that he’s not going to get better, I’m not saying that he can’t pull his season out of the toilet … I’m just saying last night’s performance doesn’t do it for me. And really, we’re not going to find out if Grossman is again an effective, non-game managing quarterback until the playoffs. The Bears close the season with the Bucs, Lions, and Packers, and unless he starts absolutely lighting it up and putting up huge numbers again … I don’t see myself being a big believer in Rex Grossman and the Bears in the playoffs.
The Big Picture
two things:
1. only Stella has her groove back.
2. I don’t like the Bears either…I think they’re quarterback was shitty in college and now shitty in the pros. BUT, CHI will likely get home-field throughout and with the NFC being weak as hell, who’s going into Soldier Field and taking down the Bears? Cowboys? Saints? Seahawks?
AFC is gonna whoop some ass in the Super Bowl.
December 12, 2006 at 5:07 am
peytonloveskenny
I agree, MJD. Those numbers would be more impressive had he played an actual NFL defense.
December 12, 2006 at 10:07 am
KWehme09
I am not ready to acknowledge Grossman as a great quarterback after last night for the reasons MJD pointeD out. One gAme a great quarterback does Not maKe. And hiS numbers weren’t that good.
However, the fact remaInS that the Bears, with their current makeup and even their lonG history, do not need A great quarterback. TheY have won with 0-TD-4-TO Rex, they will certainly be fine with 2-TD-0-TO Rex.
Would Griese do much better than 2 TD 0 TO? I doubt it. Some people seem to be thinking that Griese will equal guaranteed success and Lovie is refusing to put him in. I don’t think that’s the case. Orton on the other hand, well…
December 12, 2006 at 10:29 am
Omar
the success of the bears is not directly correlated to the success of grossman. its only his failure (and abject failure at that) that will kill their chances. yes, they cant expect two td returns each game but when they get turnovers in every game (40 so far) you can’t keep saying that the bears can’t depend on their ball-hawk defense to bail them out. almost 50% of their scoring comes off turnovers.
if anything was the problem yesterday it was the defense. granted they were on the field all the time because the offense never had to touch the ball, but 28 points is not acceptable.
December 12, 2006 at 12:16 pm
Big Daddy
Well stated!
December 12, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Ryan
FUCK YOU MJD……Thats right….FUCK YOU!
December 12, 2006 at 11:57 pm
fd
“just over 50% of his passes”
13/23 = 56.5% = “nearly 60%”, which is more accurate than your wording.
But I agree with the post. As a Bears fan, Grossman petrifies me. Doubly so when the playoffs get here. It just tweaks me when people do things like round to the nearest 10% just to make their point look stronger.
December 13, 2006 at 12:40 am
fd
doh. shoulda said “the most convenient 10%”
December 13, 2006 at 12:41 am
the mighty mjd
I can’t apologize enough.
December 13, 2006 at 2:35 am
David
What’s up MJD. I completely agree with you. I am not sold yet because of one game. The problem is that the next time we will actually be able to guage it against a decent defense will be playoff game 1. I don’t think it’s all Rex that I am not sold on though. I am not sold that Ron Turner won’t keep with the solid play calling for Rex you saw in the Rams game. Rex wasn’t great with eveything but he was good enough to efficiently get us down the field and not put everything on the D and Hester’s back.
December 13, 2006 at 5:53 pm
RLD
The one thing that seems to be missed is that the game is more than just the stats. Hester’s returns were awesome, but the interesting observation is that the return doesn’t give the defense a chance to catch much of a breather, and it doesn’t give the offense much of a chance to rack up yardage. The Bears are ranked 16th in yardage offense for a damn good reason: returns for TDs and turnovers mean there are are a lot of drives they never had to mount, and the ones they did were often short.
Personally, I wouldn’t trade Hester’s returns for anything, but it would have been interesting to see how the offense and defense would have been changed if the defense got more of a breather and the offense had two more opportunities.
December 14, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Steve ONeill
What did REX mean by not being focused or prepared ! Was he HUNG Over at Game time ? Did he have a HUGE Party planned after the Game ! Was he focused on keeping 20 Friends and Relatives Happy during and after the Game ! Did he drink his usual 20 Cups of Coffee before the Game started ? Maybe he should lay off the Coffee ! Its time for the Bears to DRUG test these Players before Game time ! The Players that are totally WIRED, like Grossman, should have to sit on the BENCH ! What BAR did Grossman go to after the GAME ? He embarassed the whole City of Chicago ! He should be driving a CAB now !
January 4, 2007 at 5:32 pm