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player ready...You asked for it, you got it.
You demanded a different Bears quarterback. You were given a different quarterback.
You were sick of the first guy.
You begged for the other guy.
You did, I did, everybody did.
Rex Grossman’s understudy went on Sunday. He fumbled twice. He threw three interceptions. He was sacked six times, including on the final play.
Haven’t we been here before?
“If you’re going to make plays that don’t work, you’d better make enough plays to make up for it,” Brian Griese said after a 37-27 loss at Ford Field to the Lions, the Motor City’s biggest lemons since the Edsel.
Griese hurled 52 passes. It was the third most by a Bear in history, tying the number thrown by Johnny Lujack way back in 1949.
A mob came after Grossman with torches and a rope. Is this what everybody wants? A quarterback who gives you a lot of fantasy-league yards? A team — a Bears team, no less — that throws the ball 52 times and runs it 22?
Grossman has never thrown it more than 44 times in a game in his NFL life.
Sometimes, the new man was right on the money. Griese completed 34 of his passes.
Sometimes, he was Bad Brian. Two of his interceptions came in the red zone with the Bears poised to score.
Sometimes, he saw the same painful things that Grossman saw.
“Sometimes,” Griese said, “I’m on my back and don’t see what happens.”
Rex redux.
For a change, Grossman was a spectator like everybody else. He could only watch as helplessly.
Part of him wanted to give Griese a fellow quarterback’s perspective and advice. Part wanted to give Griese his space.
“You never want anybody to talk to you at moments like that,” Grossman said after the game. “I did go over to talk with him five or six times during the game just to let him know what I was seeing.”
Like his coach, Lovie Smith, there wasn’t much Grossman could do except watch and try to figure out what’s wrong.
“It’s a long season,” Grossman said. “It’s like Lovie says, the first quarter’s over. In this league anything can happen. We’ll just try to fix things. I’ll go to work on Monday like everybody else. That’s all I can do.”
For a fleeting, old-school Motown moment, everything looked fixed.
The 32-year-old Michigan grad Griese found the 34-year-old Michigan State man Muhsin Muhammad in an end zone in downtown Detroit.
It was the first touchdown catch of the season for Muhammad. It was the first for any Bears wide receiver.
It also matched the number of TD passes that Grossman threw in the first three games.
Offensive coordinator Ron Turner liked what he saw. But not much of what he had seen before that.
“No first downs in the first quarter — none rushing, none passing,” Turner said. “It’s been the same story for four games now.”
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When he saw Griese guide the offense on a 71-yard touchdown march in the second quarter, Turner felt better.
Then he watched with exasperation as Griese twice was picked off near the Lions’ goal line.
“Any time you turn the ball over, it’s bad. But when you don’t take advantage of opportunities, you’re asking for trouble,” Turner said.
No one on the Bears can blame the quarterback for everything. Not when that vaunted defense of theirs has given up 95 points in four weeks.
But with the Bears now having lost four of their last five games, including the Super Bowl, there will be fingers pointed in every direction to find out who’s at fault.
“Guys, they’re not happy,” Griese said. “They shouldn’t be happy. The good part about it is that it’s early in the year. That’s the only good thing about it.”
Griese is going to get attention and blame the same way Grossman got it.
Did anybody ask the Bears’ head coach if he thought about pulling Griese out of the game at any point? You bet your life.
“No,” Smith said flatly.
He isn’t happy with anything or anybody at the moment. He has more on his mind right now than which quarterback is taking the snaps.
The new quarterback knows how the coach feels.
“We are 1-3,” Griese said. “You are what your record says you are; 2006 doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got 2007. It’s about how we’re going to respond.”
And how he responds.
“I’m a part of this team,” Griese agreed. “I’m going to look at myself first and foremost.”
Get in line.
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