Bears-Seahawks: Rex is back
The Bears are travelling to Seattle this Sunday in a game that was bumped from the primetime slot. I don't blame NBC for not wanting to televise the Bears. Hell, I write a blog about the Bears and I can barely stomach watching them. Luckily the Raiders game featured the "D Team" and nobody outside Chicago saw it, or else Fox executives might have caught whiff and relegated the game to Versus!
The bigger news, of course, is the return of Rex Grossman to the starting lineup. I think the Bears made the right decision in benching Rex after the Dallas game. At the time, his confidence was completely shot, and he was making terrible mistakes every game. He just looked like a broken man in his press conferences. So I think the time off might have done him some good. A reality check, if you will.
But if I'm the Bears, I give Rex a short leash. I literally do not plan more than one game in advance. He starts this week. He does shitty, he's done with the Bears forever. He does well, he starts next week. He needs at least four good games in a row before he gets his leash extended to two games, let alone a contract extension.
And if he does do shitty, I really want to see Kyle Orton. We know what Griese can do. If it turns out Orton sucks, then so be it. You've got to go with the young guys. It's going to take a 6-1 type of run to make the playoffs, and frankly I don't think any of the three is capable of that. If it were up to me, Griese would only play if a) Grossman has one more horrible game, and b) Orton has three horrible games. Griese's a fine backup. A gamer. But he won't ever be much better than what we've already seen, and we haven't seen much.
I don't have very high hopes for Grossman. It's certainly possible that he can lead the Bears to a 6-1 record the rest of the way, and play well in at least six of those games. It's just not very likely. He's still short, he still has no pocket presence, he still runs into sacks, and he still has happy feet. The occasional successful bomb can not hide those facts. I put the odds of him doing well somewhere around one in ten. I put the odds of him doing so well that the Bears offer him an extension somewhere around one in thirty. Not good.
So....prediction time. I'm tempted to pick the Bears because a) Seattle isn't very good, and b) the Seahawks are a team Rex has had multiple good games against. I just can't do it, though. This team is a few lucky breaks from being 1-8. They only have one convincing win all season, and even that one was far from a blowout. I predict the yo-yo will swing back this week and the Bears lose, 24-10.