Rex Grossman the whipping boy

First off I'm not a huge fan of Grossman. I thought he was going to be a complete bust in the NFL but I have to admit he had a much better season this year than I thought he was capable of.

But this post Super Bowl piling on seems to be getting a little out of hand. I heard Mike & Mike talking this morning about an article that suggested that Rex needs to leave Chicago and start over.

Hello, it was his first full year as the starter. Did he have his share of stinkers? Sure, but damn where would the Packers be now if they gave up on Favre early on in his career when he was making horrible decisions and throwing tons of picks.

Again, I'm not a huge fan of Grossman, but how about giving him the benefit of the doubt considering he helped guide a team to a 15-4 record and a Super Bowl appearance? I also think their defense is getting a bit of a free pass here too. They couldn't stop the Colts especially in the 2nd half when they ran all over them.

I think it would be incredibly knee-jerk if the Bears look to replace him already. I don't think they'll do that, Lovie Smith seems like a very grounded and sensible man, but man the media is just so out of control with this Grossman needs to go crap.

If I were a Bears fan I would want Grossman to be caned by Thai police. He definately had an awful game against the Colts and is very inconsistent. If the Bears had a better QB, they would have had a much better chance of winning the Super Bowl. They had a running game, a very good (if inconsistent) defense, and great special teams.

But, as you pointed out Matty, it was his first season as a full-time starter. He's not totally green as he's been on the bench (or trainer's room) for a few years now, but experience in real games matters. So, he deserves a bit of a pass.

So, while I agree that the Bears would be foolish to dump Grossman at this point, I can certainly understand the hazing he is going through.

Blaming Rex Grossman for the loss is pretty knee jerk if you ask me. Bears S Danieal Manning was directly as responsible for just as many points as Grossman was, and unlike Grossman he was in no way impressive.

At this stage in his career, Grossman is a below average QB with the potential to be an above average one. He struggled all year to complete an acceptable amount of his passes (completion %), and for three quarters of the Super Bowl, Grossman was completing better than 75%. This shows remarkable improvement and understanding of the offense.

Yet, despite three very good quarters from the Quarterback, the Bears were dominated in all phases of the game, and were trailing by 5. That was in no way their QBs fault.

Grossman had struggled to throw the long ball all day in the conditions, and whether you consider the Hayden INT to be a poor decision to try to throw the fade ball in the rain, or just a crappy throw (I think it was both), you have to admit that the interception was predomantly, if not entirely, on the quarterback. The second INT to Sanders was a good decision, but once again the QB failed to deliever the deep ball accurately in the conditions.

Peyton Manning showed a patience that clearly seperated the two QBs on this day in taking the underneath stuff to beat the Bears Cover 2. Manning didn't try to stretch the field unessarily when the Bears were giving up the underneath stuff, possibly because he didn't trust a down the field throw into coverage in the wet conditions.

A Quarterbacks' day is defined by the entire body of work, not by one or two critical throws. Grossman completed 71% on the day, for IMO a solid, but unspectacular day where he made some mistakes.

Bad sportswriting is everywhere, and for those who think Rex should have been replaced at QB by Brian Griese at any point this year have apparently never seen Brian Griese play his way out of Denver and later Tampa Bay.

One other point: I am really, really not a big fan of the fade ball, espicially in the middle of the field (between the 20s). It's a low percentage pass with relatively little reward, and when the QB fs up, catastrophy occurs. I think NFL coordinators should completely get rid of it.

Grossman is terrible.

Griese would have given them a chance to win that game.

The Bears need another QB in there to challenge him or replace him.

Blaming Rex Grossman for the loss is pretty knee jerk if you ask me. Bears S Danieal Manning was directly as responsible for just as many points as Grossman was, and unlike Grossman he was in no way impressive.

I must disagree. Two fumbles on good snaps in one game is inexcusable for ANY quarterback.

Yet, despite three very good quarters from the Quarterback, the Bears were dominated in all phases of the game, and were trailing by 5. That was in no way their QBs fault.

I agree that the Bears were getting dominated on defense, but I didn't see three good quarters from Rex. He had about 30 passing yards at the half and, as noted above, he fumbled twice and threw two picks on bad, bad, bad passes. It's not that Rex was the sole reason for the Bear's loss, but he was definately a big factor.

Part of the blame also must lie with offensive coordinator Ron Turner. Thomas Jones only had 15 carries for the game when his team was only down 16-14, 19-14, and 22-17.

The Bears shouldn't have put it all on Rex's shoulders in the 4th quarter.

I must disagree. Two fumbles on good snaps in one game is inexcusable for ANY quarterback.These fumbles certainly were a major factor in the outcome of the game.

However, I don't believe Grossman has a fumbling problem (I could be wrong, I only saw about half of Chicago's games), and these very well could have been two isolated incidents due to the conditions.

If J. Campbell was the Bears QB they would have won that game. Sign Garcia and see what he can do. Grossman is way too careless and right now he plays one good game for every two. Kind of hard to get back to the big game with those odds. Just goes to show how important that position is. The teams with a very good to great quarterback have such a huge advantage in the NFL it's not even funny. With a top eight QB you can basically stay in almost any game IMO. That is huge.

I hate to jump on the Rex is horrible bandwagon, but he's bad.

Bottom line, in the biggest game of your life, you find a way to fight the elements and come up with a few gutsy plays. He didn't.

He was a non-factor, provided no emotional spark for his team, and made costly mistakes.