PMS (Post-Mortum Summary)

First, let me say congrats to the Colts. You beat my Bears, but I'd rather lose to Tony Dungy than to someone like Belichick. In defeat I was able to at least feel good for the winning coach. This guy has 1 losing season in 11 years of coaching but never gets mentioned in the same breath as the other top coaches. Hopefully he will now. I'd like to look at a couple of things from the game, mainly at the quarterbacks. I think one quarterback is getting too much credit and the other is getting too much blame.

Peyton Manning was the MVP of the Super Bowl. What a goddamn joke. The league couldn't wait to anoint Archie's boy with this one. Now, Peyton had a decent game. But 247 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception is hardly an MVP type game. The real MVP, or MVPs, were Joseph Addai and Dominick Rhodes. These two carried the Indy offense and if not for them the game would have been closer. One could also argue that the MVP should have been someone from the defense. I would not have had a problem with this at all. But Peyton as the MVP? Please, he had an average game. But hey, he won, and that's all that really matters in the end.

Now onto the other quarterback, Rex Grossman. I caught myself yelling at the radio and TV all day today when the so called "experts" were analyzing him. "Rex cost the Bears the Super Bowl". "Rex should have been benched for Griese". "He can't be the starter next year". "The Bears should think about bringing in Jeff Garcia". FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, AND FALSE!!!!! First Rex did not cost the Bears the game. Did he play like shit? Yes. Did he contribute to the Bears losing? Yes. Is it all his fault? Hell no! I put more of the blame on the defense. Maybe if they could tackle somebody BEFORE they gained 10-12 yards the Bears may have won. And the missed tackling started up front at the tackles, most notably with a guy who should have been sitting at home watching the game with his AK-47 in hand and an ankle bracelet strapped to him, Tank Johnson. Did Brian Urlacher prove everyone that says he is overrated wrong yesterday? No. He had 7 tackles, and how many of those were tackles from behind when he got juked on the initial attempt? Probably 4 or 5. Rex threw a pass that was the nail in the coffin that was intercepted and ran back. Bad pass, but it would not have been intercepted had Muhsin Muhammad not stood there with a dazed look on his face and actually made an attempt to at least break up the catch. And it would not have been ran back had Muhammad actually tried to knock Kelvin Hayden out of bounds instead of slapping at him like a goddamn Sally. Truth be told, I was pretty shocked to see Muhammad actually catch the ball on that second touchdown. Remember last year when he was blaming Orton for his lack of production? I do, because I kept wanting to tell him to shut the hell up, since Orton did actually get the ball to him, he just kept dropping the passes. He is overrated and as I have previously stated Berrian is the #1 receiver on that team. Indy knew it. They had Berrian double covered most of the game.

Now, as far as this silliness that Rex needs to be replaced, anyone who says this should be taken out back and punished. This was his first full year. He went to the Super Bowl. He will get better. How soon we forget the days of the John Shoop 1 yard pass offense. How soon we forget the Kyle Orton "we're winning, but we're not going downfield" days. You can't have it both ways. Either you want the deep ball thrown, and with that you are going to get burned sometimes, or you want the safe play. As a lifelong Bears fan I have had enough of the little 3 yard gain passes and welcome the idea that we now have a quarterback that has the balls to go downfield. Sure, sometimes he goes deep when the coverage dictates that he shouldn't, but in time he will learn when and when not to do that. Brett Favre learned it early on. Peyton Manning learned it early on. Why isn't Rex allowed that same learning curve? Because his team was in the Super Bowl? That's bullshit. He made it farther than those guys did in their first years and he's getting punished for it. Now, I'm not saying that Grossman will have the career of those guys, but he should at least be given some time to prove that he is not the answer. To pull the plug on him now would be the worst thing that could happen to the Bears. What are you going to do, draft someone and start all over again? That would be foolish. I've heard plenty of boobs on the Boo-Yah Network actually suggest bringing in Jeff Garcia. These guys should have their jobs taken away. Look, Garcia had a nice half season, and he has had a nice career. But the guy will be 39 next year. So lets see, you're telling me you bring him in for one year, then start all over again? That's completely assenine. What's even more ridiculous is the notion that Lovie Smith should have brought in Brian Griese. People, Griese is a nice backup. As a starter he BLOWS. He had one good year. Do you really think that he would be on his fourth team if he was anything more that a backup? No, he'd be starting somewhere if he was a half way decent starting quarterback. If Griese was starting people would be begging for Grossman to start.
It's that old addage, the grass is always greener on the other side. In summation, the people who are putting all the blame on Grossman are probably the same folks who put all the blame in 2003 on Steve Bartman for the Cubs choking. He's just a scapegoat. Yesterday was the true definition of a team loss. And to those who are wanting a quarterback change for next year, just be patient. Grossman may turn out to not be the answer, but for the next few years he has the best chance at taking this team to the promised land.