Tuesday’s two-minute drill …
Time after time since the middle of the 2006 season, Bears coach Lovie Smith has supported Rex Grossman so often publicly every chance he gets that one enterprising Bears fan printed T-shirts reading “Rex Is Our Quarterback.” Another opportunity to repeat the mantra came Monday at Halas Hall.
Smith passed.
For the second straight week, saying nothing said it all.
So began the process to replace Grossman with Brian Griese. Every indication points to the changing of the guard taking place at practice Wednesday when essentially the Bears start over at quarterback. Again.
By the way, the 2008 NFL draft is April 25, for all of you already wondering how far Louisville’s Brian Brohm will drop in the first round. Here we go again, Chicago.
When Smith said Sunday night, minutes after losing 34-10 to Dallas, that “Rex Grossman is our quarterback,” that was emotion talking. Loyalty is a Smith trait as obvious as his Texas drawl.
Then Smith watched the film and started sounding like a football coach again instead of a protective father. By the time Smith met the media Monday afternoon, he was coy, evasive and every other adjective used to describe a coach trying to hide something.
If Grossman was remaining Smith’s guy, Smith would have shifted the heat onto himself by stating unequivocally that he was sticking with No. 8. No good reason exists to leave Grossman twisting in the wind if a switch wasn’t coming. By saying he already had made up his mind but won’t reveal the decision publicly until Wednesday’s practice, Smith all but confirmed a change he had to make.
The NFL’s 30th-ranked offense needs a fresh dynamic perhaps changing for the sake of change can provide.
Sure, the Lions’ defense vulnerability to a vertical passing game might provide good tonic for a struggling quarterback such as Grossman. On the other hand, Grossman’s six interceptions against one TD pass in three games suggests he also might help keep the overmatched Lions in the game longer than they should be with bad decisions.
It comes down to protecting the football and, at this point of the season, Grossman simply cannot be trusted more than a guy whose clean slate represents his biggest appeal.
Demoting Grossman doesn’t have to mean a quickie divorce for the rest of this season, likely his last in Chicago. For some reason there’s a belief Grossman should be exiled to the No. 3 quarterback job, traded or even cut now that he has lost his starting job. That’s too extreme.
Three games into a season remains too early to conclude Grossman won’t be needed this year. What if Griese gets injured or is even worse? What if Kyle Orton, who outplayed Griese at Bourbonnais, struggles too?
Grossman needs a mental vacation as much as anything and might resemble that loose, confident quarterback the next time he takes the field. That might come in another NFL city or it could be in Chicago later this season for a team still thinking playoffs.
The pressure of always having to justify his job turned Grossman from aggressive to tentative, and next time he could play like a guy with nothing to lose. Because, after all, Grossman already will have lost his starting job. …
Out of respect, loyalty and professional obligation, teammates always backed Grossman even after the latest clunker without the slightest hint of the frustration they must feel. In fact, the locker room threw such blanket support around their quarterback that when a teammate made a statement that seemed to point a finger in Grossman’s direction, it stood out.
Such was the case when Muhsin Muhammad responded Sunday night to a question about Grossman’s first interception on a deep in-pattern where Cowboys cornerback Anthony Henry beat Muhammad to a spot and thus the football. Muhammad explained in the locker room that he had run the correct route and even tried to make a play on the ball but “the ball was already over my head.”
He reiterated that stance Monday. “I thought I ran a good route,” Muhammad said. “I didn’t come out slow or dragging or nothing like that. The timing might have been off on it a little bit. Rex might have threw it a little bit earlier than he wanted to or whatever. … I made every effort to try to get to the ball and at least bat it or make the swing at it. I couldn’t even touch it.” …
Tony Romo fans from Texas to Tinley Park want an apology for the suggestion in Sunday’s Tribune that Romo hadn’t yet played a defense as good as the Bears, so doubt was appropriate.
A cynic would say that Romo still hasn’t played a top-five defense after he shredded the banged-up Bears for 329 passing yards and 34 points. But in all seriousness, Romo made a convincing argument that he is among the three best young quarterbacks in the NFL right behind Carson Palmer and possibly Ben Roethlisberger. His ability to create opportunities for himself outside the pocket had as much to do with Terrell Owens getting free on basic in-routes as anything.
Romo is the real deal, and praise for him after his 14th NFL start against the toughest defense he has seen is as appropriate as the healthy skepticism before it. …
Cedric Benson had a tough week even before he stepped on the field Sunday night. He had admitted to the Tribune racing cars at speeds up to 170 m.p.h. last off-season that violated Appendix C of his NFL Player contract stating a player must have written consent from the team before engaging in any activity other than football that may “involve significant risk of personal injury.”
Benson also caused a stir by being quoted in the Sun-Times as saying coaching “goes in one ear and out the other.” It apparently has cost him the benefit of the doubt at Halas Hall. The way the Bears apparently came down on Benson after his fumble Sunday night struck this observer as surprising and unwarranted. He never carried the ball again after his third-quarter fumble and appeared to be benched. Replays were not conclusive enough to overturn the call on the field but indicated Benson’s forward progress had been stopped and then the ball was ripped out of his hands.
No running back can shrug off a fumble, especially in a game that was close at the time. But Benson’s turnover didn’t come as the result of a bad decision or carelessness carrying the ball. It came after the point where a whistle should have been blown and it was reasonable to assume the play was over. Criticize Benson for underachieving and being ranked 20th in the league in rushing when the Bears need him in the top 10. But be fair when ripping him over a fumble that easily could have been overturned and nobody would have blinked. …
Next week at this time, fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo will have completed his four-game suspension and be available to help the Bears on special teams.
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dhaugh@tribune.com
BEARS AT LIONS
*Noon Sunday, WFLD-Ch. 32
