As “meaningless” exhibitions go, Friday night’s game against the San Diego Chargers at Soldier Field is about as intriguing a second preseason rehearsal as the Bears have played in some time.
An injury kept quarterback Rex Grossman from making it through the second exhibition of the last preseason. Last week it was his feelings that were hurt, along with everybody figuring the Bears could put together a better offense than last season’s 29th-ranked unit.
Exhibition games usually mean next to nothing, a necessary evil for most players and coaches who fear injury more than they value the practice.
But in Grossman’s case, how can playing more possibly hurt? He is expected to play a half Friday. Last week it was only 16 plays. Why not the whole game?
Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells played third-year backup Tony Romo from Eastern Illinois the entire game last week against Seattle. Romo hasn’t played at all in a real game, which gives him only slightly less experience than Grossman. Parcells needed to find out more. Romo completed 19 of 25 passes for 235 yards.
“I still don’t know for sure where he can be,” Parcells said. “But I got a lot better idea that he’s on the right path, and that’s what I’m hoping for.”
Grossman wouldn’t play a whole exhibition game unless all the other starters play too. But doesn’t coach Lovie Smith need to know more about Grossman?
The Bears keep saying and thinking Grossman is the answer. They keep seeing it in practices too. They were so convinced that they held him out of their regular-season finale against Minnesota to keep him healthy for the playoffs, this after he had started only seven games in three years and only one last season. The rest didn’t help.
Last week Grossman went 3 of 11 for 47 yards and fumbled a snap.
“That just wasn’t me,” he said.
His center was new, his receiver fumbled and his offensive coordinator, Ron Turner, isn’t worried one bit.
“Rex is a heck of a football player,” Turner said. “Rex is the least of my concerns, to be honest. We didn’t game-plan at all. We really didn’t practice for them, had one walk-through.”
Still, Brian Griese was 6 of 7 for 134 yards and two touchdowns. If that isn’t controversy, it’s definitely contrast.
It’s also competition, no matter how many times Smith talks about his depth chart.
“Grossman picked a bad time to lay an egg,” general manager Jerry Angelo said. “To me, he was pressing. Griese comes in and looks like his dad (Hall of Famer Bob). To me, most quarterback controversies tell you you really don’t have one [quarterback]. In this case, we feel real good about our quarterbacks, and there’s competition.”
There, he said it. Competition.
“People were always crying, `They don’t want to create competition for Grossman.’ And I’ve always said that’s not the case,” Angelo said. “We just had to bring the right guy in here who understands the dynamic and is willing to compete. Griese did, and that’s what he’s doing.”
Angelo reiterated Kurt Warner and other veterans the Bears courted over the last two years wanted to be guaranteed “starter or co-starter” status, which meant more money.
“We never said we don’t want anybody competing with Grossman,” Angelo said. “We said, `We have a depth chart, and you’re going to be behind Grossman. That doesn’t mean you’re not competing. If you feel as confident in your abilities as what you say, you shouldn’t be intimidated by a guy who really is still a novice at the position.'”
In Griese’s case, the Bears paid $14 million over five years, excellent backup money but still not in the ballpark for established starters.
“We felt like you don’t see a 31-year-old quarterback with his resume come on the market that often,” Angelo said. “We told him the same thing we told the other guys.”
While nobody should save the tapes of opening exhibition games, the outing was unfortunate for Grossman mainly because of the contrast not only to Griese but to other quarterbacks in similar situations.
San Francisco’s Alex Smith, coming off a disastrous rookie season, was 16 of 21 for 137 yards.
Denver rookie Jay Cutler went 16 of 22 for 192 yards and a touchdown.
Buffalo’s J.P. Losman, fighting for the starting job, threw three straight incompletions in a reserve role to begin a 15-for-24, 144-yard performance.
And Philip Rivers, Friday night’s opponent, went 15 of 21 for 169 yards and led two scoring drives with one touchdown pass in the first half. He has never started a regular-season game in his two years.
“I thought he played excellent,” San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer said.
San Diego beat Green Bay last week. In a brief appearance, quarterback Brett Favre completed 5 of 10 passes for 66 yards and was sacked on successive plays.
“I wanted to stay in and try to get something going,” said Favre, asked if he would rather just skip the exhibition formalities in his 16th season.
Grossman should ignore his coach if he’s taken out Friday night.
“I just need to transfer what I’ve been able to do on the practice field to the game field,” Grossman said.
Injuries to the receivers and running backs have hampered Turner’s training camp progress. While it’s a good excuse for the quarterbacks, it also adds pressure to the position. Turner doesn’t mind that.
“Everybody is saying Brian stepped in and did well and Rex didn’t do well,” Turner said. “To me that’s a positive because Brian went in and did really well, and there’s no doubt in our mind that Rex is going to do really well. And we know what Kyle [Orton] can do. I feel a lot better about the quarterback position than probably everybody else.”
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dpierson@tribune.com
