Deconstructing the QB Controversy in Chicago

By Brett | Permalink | 1 comment | December 6th, 2006 | Trackback

We’ve been resistant to chiming in publicly on the clusterfuck that is the quarterback situation in Chicago for a couple reasons. First, it seems like every a-hole out there has an opinion on whether the Bears should stick with the struggling (and when we say struggling, we mean in the making fans yearn for the Kordell Stewart era kind of way) Rex Grossman, or hand the reins over to reliable-but-underwhelming back-up Brian Griese. Second, as a Bears fan, we had hoped that if we just ignored this problem, it would eventually go away. It hasn’t, so here we are joining the ‘chattering classes’ of the blogosphere to throw in our $.02. (Editor’s note: we were hoping to work the word ‘truthiness’ into that last sentence, in an effort to cram one more 21st Century buzzword in, but couldn’t quite figure out how to pull it off).

The best way, we believe, to approach this very important, far-reaching issue with global implications of who should quarterback the Bears of Chicago for the final four regular season games, and ostensibly, one to two playoff games, is to have a look at what both sides of the argument have to say. We’ll start with the agruments in favor of benching Grossman, and then examine the arguments in favor of keeping him in the line up.

What the Haters Say
The hideous, god-awful, turnover-filled play that has Grossman has been displaying since the MNF game against Arizona is simply the inevitable result of drating an undersized, injury-prone QB from Florida who thinks he can make every single play going down the field. He doesn’t read defenses very well, and his mechanics are terrible. He crumbles under pressure, doesn’t move very well in the pocket, and locks on to his primary target. His solid play at the beginning of the season was simply a result of playing against bad defenses, and the fact is he had several potential INTs dropped in those games. Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo are too enamored with the guy they anointed to be the franchise QB without making him earn it, and are willing to tank the Bears’ Super Bowl chances just to keep Grossman in the line up. Grossman is a horrible, horrible person, and we hope he rots in hell.

What the Fanboys Say
Rex Grossman is essentially a rookie this year, so people need to lay off him just a little bit. Yeah, he’s thrown some picks, but he’s got that ‘gunslinger’ mentality that you just gotta love in a QB. He’ll make plays that other QBs can’t. He was playing at a Pro-Bowl level the first six weeks of the season, so fans and media should just lay off him. Once he gets his mojo back and starts being a little more patient, he’ll start making plays again. Grossman’s the guy that’s going to lead the Bears back to the Super Bowl (as a side note, Bears fans are the only sports fans we know that consistently talk about going “back” to a game in which they haven’t participated in 21 years), so just get off his back and let him play.

What We Say
Two aspects of this debate have been particularly surprising to us:

First, we can’t honestly remember a QB playing as well as Grossman did early in the season and as poorly as he has recently in the same season. He’s had the most bi-polar season of any QB we can remember, and we’d be willing to bet that his game to game QB ratings bear that out.

Second, we’ve been a little taken aback at how vociferous both sides have been on this debate, and how neither camp has been willing to admit that the other side actually makes some valid points. It’s like Bears fans and the Chicago media have been taken over by opposing camps of Socialists and Right Wing Fundamentalists, battling over whether all the corn fields in the Midwest should be nationalized.

Look, here’s the deal: both sides have valid points. It’s obvious that Grossman has been one of, if not the, worst QBs in the NFL over the last few weeks. It should also be obvious to any informed fan that the guy has loads of talent and potential. Both sides also make ridiculous claims. We laugh every time we read some media type kvetching about Grossman throwing off his back foot — every quarterback in the NFL throws off their back foot, from time to time. They have to, or else they’ll killed. On the other side of the coin, we’re sick of hearing how he’s basically a rookie. Whatever. Dude is finishing up his fourth season in the NFL. He’s not a rookie, and he has no excuse for playing like one.

The linchpin of the argument to bench Grossman seems to be that the Bears have a team that is a QB away from winning the Super Bowl, and if they can just get someone in that can effective manage the game, not turn the ball over, and keep the chains moving, they’ll win the whole thing. This is where we have to call bullshit in a big way. The Bears defense is very good, but not great like the 2001 Ravens were great. Good teams have moved the ball on them, particularly on the ground. In fact, they’ve given up over 130 per game over the last six weeks. Additionally, while they’ve beaten the teams that have been on their schedule, they’ve played exactly TWO good teams this year — New England, to whom they lost, and Seattle, who they beat (although Shaun Alexander didn’t play).

Bottom line, the Bears are good enough to beat up on most of the teams in the NFC, but we don’t believe that they could beat Indianapolis, San Diego, New England, or Baltimore. They might not even be able to hang with Seattle and Dallas in the playoffs. This is not a Super Bowl team, no matter who plays quarterback. Period. So stick with Grossman. Give him another four games and the playoffs to show what he’s got. If he continues to suck, cut his ass and go with Griese next year. If he pulls himself back together, you’ve got your franchise QB. If he finds a happy medium, he might, just might, be good enough to get the Bears back to the big game.

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