[CBFF] What's different about Rex

[Steve Behrens]

I wasn't all-inclusive in my commentary, so your mouth has only your words
in it, and maybe a foot or two by the end of the season.

And nice why to sidestep the Manning stat... very convincing.  Manning never
reached the lows Rex has in his early career, but he never reached the highs
either, until he finally found his footing in the league.  I would say that
if you *averaged out* (if one could possibly do that) Rex's performances in
his games to date, that would ,again, on average, be comparable to Manning,
IMO.

Here is a portion of an article from Dustin Beutin of the Chicago Sports
Review, who touches on most of the issues some of us have already tagged as
affecting Rex:

http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/inthemeantime/contentview.asp?c=204435

*Sadly, the Bears have their own issues with reality. Over the last ten
games, anyone who has seen the Bears play can tell you that Fred Miller
doesn't look right. With all due respect to a talented player who has given
great effort and excellent play to two different Super Bowl teams, the
biggest disappointment on a highly disappointing offensive line has been
watching Fred Miller get burned by defenses as if he were a revolving door
at Marshall Fields. (By the way, the windows are decorated at Marshall
Fields, but someone needs to fix the signage - it's red and several letters
too short.)

The whack-job Bears, however, have continued to trot out Fred Miller as a
sacrificial lamb every week, despite clear proof that a toll-booth attendant
would be better at slowing people down. It's been sad. It's been
embarrassing. It's been the bane of Rex Grossman and Brian Griese's
collective existence. For three quarters on Sunday, the Bears watched
defensive linemen rip past Miller and into Grossman's face, hoping that
somehow if they watched their right tackle get beaten enough times, they
would see different results.

Finally, someone, somewhere on the Bears must have said "maybe the
penalties, sacks and forced passes aren't worth saving Fred Miller's ego."
The insanity mercifully ended in the fourth quarter when John St. Clair came
out to replace Miller. The results were instantaneous. Suddenly, Rex
Grossman had time to throw and was able to find open receivers. The running
game found holes as defenders weren't able to destroy plays in the
backfield. The offense gained rhythm. The offense scored points. All the
while, Miller stood on the sideline like a vet and great teammate. The
change will hopefully be permanent, lest the Bears desire to prove their
lack of lucidness once more by putting Miller back in the starting lineup.

Unfortunately, the Bears' problems maintaining a grip on real life don't end
with Fred Miller. Mark Anderson continues to get destroyed by teams who run
the ball. In the first quarter, the Bears watched as Denver ran three times
in a row over Anderson before replacing him with Alex Brown and ending the
madness. Who up at Halas Hall can see this happening week after week and
approve of the decision to start the young pass-rusher over the proven
Brown? Crazy.

The wide receivers continue to drop passes and run incorrect routes on a
regular basis. It is insanity to think these problems will solve themselves.
Someone who is willing to take responsibility for the quality of this team
needs to address the wide receiver coach and/or Ron Turner to inform them
that it isn't good to see footballs bouncing off the hands of Bear wide
receivers. Maybe show them some game film of the New England Patriots - you
won't see a lot of dropped passes.*

Of course, I expect little or no consideration to these facts by the
Anti-Rex contingent.

Go Rex... Go Bears!!!

-Behr



On Nov 28, 2007 11:23 PM, aaron s <adsti3 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I would not agree that he's improving because the sample size is far too
> small, and it's been against crappy teams.  Don't put words in MY mouth!
>
> The Manning comparison is laughable.
>
> Steve Behrens wrote:
> >   You're putting words into a lot of people's mouths. "We"?  Not me... I
> > don't know as yet if he is or isn't. Someone mentioned that Rex's stats
> are
> > surprisingly similar to Manning after the approximately same number of
> > games....  No one who wants to see Rex booted has really addressed that.
> > You also gloss over the *facts* that the OL has been atrocious, Rex has
> has
> > to run for his life on numerous occasions,  and the Rec's have dropped
> balls
> > left and right.  But somehow, all that is still on Rex.
> >
> > I said he wasn't perfect.  I said he was improving.  (I think the
> majority
> > of folks would agree with that to some degree.)  My opinion is that
> we've
> > come this far, we don't have many, if any alternatives for the rest of
> the
> > year, so let's just see what happens for the rest of the season.
> >
> > -Behr
>
>
>
>  ____________________________________________________________________________________
> Get easy, one-click access to your favorites.
> Make Yahoo! your homepage.
> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>
> _______________________________________________
>  Check out the CBFF Blog:
> blog.chicagobearsfanforum.com
> CBFF Homepage:
> www.chicagobearsfanforum.com
>