To hear Lovie Smith tell it, Rex Grossman beat the Packers last Monday, six days before the Bears’ surprising 21-10 victory.
“He left Halas Hall just excited about the opportunity to come up here and make it right,” Smith said of the quarterback who endured a week of waiting for another chance.
Throwing an interception on the final play against the Detroit Lions that would have won the opener steeled Grossman’s confidence more than shook it. If it required a game for Grossman to get used to the feel of steering an NFL team in his first full season as a starter, he was in no mood to reminisce. Growing pains? What growing pains?
“I don’t want to talk about last week,” Grossman said, smiling. “Who cares?”
The point was not what happened to Grossman during the loss to the Lions but what happened in the days after it. Even Packers coach Mike Sherman noted Grossman’s maturation on a day when the quarterback completed only 10 of 18 passes for 132 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Sacked only once, Grossman impressed the blitz-happy Packers more with nuance than numbers.
He not only made quicker decisions, they were better ones.
“We were going after him with everything we had at times and he kept on getting up and making plays,” Sherman said. “He’s not the fastest guy in the world, but he got out of trouble a number of times, and I thought he did an outstanding job managing the ballgame.”
Here are five examples to which Sherman referred.
Second-and-3 from the Bears’ 33 with 8 minutes 21 seconds left in the first quarter
On the Bears’ second play from scrimmage, Grossman threw a ball that he frankly had not proved he could throw this season–the touch pass. He perfectly hit tight end Desmond Clark over Packers linebacker Nick Barnett for a 31-yard gain, the longest pass play of the game. A tentative quarterback likely could not have pulled the trigger on that pass, but Grossman was anything but gun-shy against a Green Bay defense that tried to rattle him all day.
Second-and-2 from the Packers’ 46 with 2 minutes 20 seconds left in the first quarter
With the blitz coming, Grossman coolly stood in the pocket and waited for wide receiver Bobby Wade to clear coverage on a crossing route. Grossman stepped up and hit Wade in stride for a 19-yard gain, his third straight completion on the drive. Wade fumbled out of bounds when hit by Michael Hawthorne, but it didn’t ruin their best connection of the day.
Second-and-12 from the Packers’ 29 two plays later
Nobody considers it a good thing when a quarterback throws an interception, especially one as badly overthrown as the one Grossman threw into the arms of safety Darren Sharper at the Green Bay that snuffed a scoring drive. But the pass, intended for Wade, again showed a fearlessness in Grossman that makes quarterbacks of his kind different. It was a terrible throw, without excuse or explanation. But if nothing else, it reminded Green Bay that Grossman still wasn’t afraid to try to create a big play and proved to anybody wondering if his confidence in throwing downfield deep in enemy territory had been restored.
Second-and-6 from the Bears’ 43 with 8 minutes 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter
Hiding the ball deftly, Grossman ran a bootleg around right end and, instead of taking on Sharper with his shoulder, slid like a runner stealing second base. Smith had warned Grossman about the dangers of being too aggressive running the ball, and sliding showed that he listens as well as understands his value to the team. Moreover, Grossman also stayed in bounds and kept the clock ticking.
Second-and-11 from the Bears’ 25 with 38 seconds left
Grossman took a knee as the clock ran out on the Bears’ third victory in Grossman’s five career starts, the scoreboard as much proof of his progress as any statistic.
