What happened to Rex?
It’s the question that has been on the minds of Bears fans since quarterback Rex Grossman committed six turnovers during Monday night’s improbable 24-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. It also was the question of the day at Halas Hall, where even Grossman was pressed to tackled the issue.
Grossman told chicagosports.com’s Rahula Strohl and other reporters that he “never really got into a rhythm,” and Strohl brought up the subject with other members of the Bears during Wednesday’s locker room question-and-answer session.
REX GROSSMAN
QUARTERBACK
Watching the film couldn’t have been too much fun, huh?
It wasn’t much fun, but it was something I can learn from and hopefully never do again. It was a good film to watch to get better, and hopefully I don’t make some of those mistakes.
What lessons did you take from it?
I took a lot of lessons out of it. Make sure I have a good pre-snap read and make sure I’m reading the defenses right and not predetermining things. … I got away from that. I got into some bad habits and hopefully just use this bye week to tighten up some fundamentals.
Are you antsy to get back on the playing field?
Playing as bad as I did, I have a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m looking forward to playing again to get the bad taste out of my mouth and move on.
You seem to be taking the blame for an all-around bad performance by the offense.
The only thing I can do is talk about myself and how I played and didn’t allow other players to get into a rhythm. … The Cardinals played extremely well, they played with a lot of intensity and everything like that, but we beat ourselves a lot.
You’ve got to be able to live with some mistakes as an aggressive quarterback. Does this performance make it harder to be aggressive?
There’s a fine line between being aggressive and being stupid. You’re always gonna have interceptions, but hopefully, you’re reading the right read.
Was Arizona disguising their coverage at all?
Not really, it was just more of a rhythm and timing that was off on a couple of those picks. One of them was just a bad read. I had figured that the [strong-side] linebacker had gone out with the running back on the fake and came up and anticipated [the receiver] being open and didn’t even see [the linebacker], so he got the pick on that. The other ones were just either poor decisions or late with the ball.
MUHSIN MUHAMMAD
WIDE RECEIVER
On whether Grossman’s four-pick performance affected his aggressiveness:
“I don’t think he lost [his gunslinger mentality] at any point during the game. He’s not scared to throw the football at all, so I’m not worried about that. … He’s who he is because he has a short memory.”
FRED MILLER
TACKLE
On a poor performance re-energizing the team:
“You hate to say you’re going to get energized off a loss–uh, I guess we didn’t lose, it seems we should have lost that game the way we played. We know what we did wrong, we know that we control our own destiny, it’s just a matter of going out there and staying healthy and playing football.”
Each week, Rahula Strohl addresses a different issue from chicagosports.com’s “Bear with Us” comment board. Visit the site on Thursday to read bonus coverage with comments from the defensive line.
THE REPLACEMENTS
A look at strong safety Mike Brown’s potential replacements:
Todd Johnson
He has 12 NFL starts and might be the safest choice. Johnson filled in when Brown left Monday’s game.
Chris Harris
The bigger hitter has been hurt and lost confidence when he lost his job to Danieal Manning in Week 3.
Brandon McGowan
He hasn’t played since injuring his knee last Jan. 1 and is currently in the doghouse. McGowan was suspended by the team for a week for violating a team rule, but is expected to be back Monday.
WHAT CAN THE BEARS DO WITHOUT BROWN?
The Bears faced the likelihood Wednesday of losing safety and defensive pulse Mike Brown for the rest of the year after surgery on his right foot.
Brown underwent surgery Wednesday morning to repair a ligament in his right foot that he injured Monday night on the first play of the fourth quarter against Arizona.
The injury, which coach Lovie Smith hinted could land Brown on injured reserve as early as Thursday, also carries the potential to shift the balance of power in the NFC.
“I think we all know what Mike means to our football team,” coach Lovie Smith said. “He’s a special player. He was having an outstanding game.”
Brown played a key role as the Bears rallied from a 20-point deficit against the Cardinals.
The comeback began when he scooped up a loose ball after Mark Anderson sacked Matt Leinart and returned it 3 yards for a touchdown.
Suddenly, a Bears defense once considered capable of setting a historic standard is in search of a leader in a secondary that starts a rookie. Now, the Bears need to find a guy among Todd Johnson, Chris Harris and Brandon McGowan to Be Like Mike without losing their defensive identity that Brown helped establish.
–Tribune, Associated Press
