The Rex Grossman Roller Coaster

By Todd McClamroch in News on Jan 2, 2007 9:55PM

Chicagoist is more uneasy about the Bears' chances in the playoffs than ever after the Packers gave them a thumping on New Year's Eve. It was another chapter in the Jekyll & Hyde performance of Bears quarterback Rex Grossman. A look at Grossman's quarterback rating throughout the 2006 season has more ups and downs than an amusement park ride.

Unfortunately, the Bears don't seem to have a method of determining which Grossman will show up to play. He has had seven games with a quarterback rating over 100. But he counters that with a miserable five games in which his rating was below 40. A perfect passer rating is 158.3, an average performance earns a quarterback a 79.2. If we concentrate on the last five games, Grossman bookended them with two awful performances, the first against Minnesota on December 3 when he completed 6 of 19 passes for no touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Then, on New Year's Eve, he again threw three interceptions and no touchdowns and only 2 completions out of 12 tosses. Between those two games, Grossman looked great, throwing 5 touchdowns and no picks and completing 60% of his passes.

The Bears arguably have an easy road to the Super Bowl with home field advantage and a handful of mediocre teams entering the playoffs. The Bears' biggest opponent will be their QB problem. We weren't too worried before this weekend because we felt if Grossman got in trouble that the defense, special teams, or Griese could bail him out. Then this weekend when Lovie Smith pulled Grossman and brought in Griese, who played almost as poorly, going just 5 for 15 and throwing 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. We realized Griese might not be able to come in midway through the game and save the day. In order for the Bears to win they are going to need to find a way to get Grossman to consistently play at an average level or better or there will be no chance the rest of the team can bail him out.

Bear down, indeed!