Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Change for a Quarterback?

Woo-Hoo - The Bears clinched the NFC North last Sunday, and are pretty much a lock for home-field throughout the playoffs. I should be happy, but I can't get over the fact that they're playing with a heap of cursed frogurt behind center. When Rex is "on", the Bears are invincible; when he's "off", they have to rely on their defense and special-teams to put up the winning scores. The Bears are a great team despite the QB situation, and historically have been. Fuck, last year we won 9 straight with Orton at the helm, but our luck is running out. The few peeks at how dominate the team was when Rex was "on" had all of us licking our chops, but if he can't keep it up we need to find someone who can. When Grossman is suffering he does the team much more harm than good - At times, we'd be better off pulling the QB entirely and throwing in another run-blocker. That's not good.
Bottom line: The Bears are gonna have one hell of a time making it out of the playoffs if Grossman isn't playing at the top of his game.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that switching from Grossman to Greaseman is the solution to all of the Bears' woes. Griese is only marginally more reliable, and I don't see him being a viable option 5 years down the road. Stick with Rex until he throws 18 consecutive interceptions in the NFC title game, then ride him out on the nearest rail. What they need to do is dust off the team AmEx card and secure some real QB talent in the off-season. I'm thinking that Jake Plummer is what Drew Brees was last off-season - a greatly underrated quarterback that we could easily secure in a bloodless bidding war. Oh, and while the card is out, bring back the goddamn Honeybears - we haven't won shit without 'em.
...

Oh, and to answer Ed's query: I remember Husker Du, but I probably wouldn't if they had John Talley (Trotsky Icepick) behind the microphone. Get my drift?
Yeah, I know that's not what you were implying, but still...

4 comments:

tom o said...

plummer was deciding between denver and bears when he was available. i guess he spent an afternoon with the bears and immediately signed with denver the next day.

he's still a little too inconsistent to win it...last year he was killer, this year he's pulled.

orton!

Chris B. said...

The blueprint for success was layed out last year by the Steelers. They had a rookie quarterback so they relied on their stellar running game and stout defense to punish their opponents. Passing opportunities came much easier as a result, so even though Big Ben had less passing attempts, they made a huge impact and were consistent.

I haven't been a huge fan of Benson all along but if Sunday was any indication, we have a pretty phenomenal running game now. I think we should use it.

In short, give Rex less passes (remove the long bomb from the game plan altogether) and give Jones/Benson more running plays.
That's what won all those games for Orton.

I'd also run this season (barring some massive meltdown or injury) as it stands, then open the starting QB position up to Orton, Griese and Grossman during the off season. Let them fight it out like any other position.

edP said...

Poor Trotsky. They did him like a player at the University of Miami

Anonymous said...

I don't know what all those big long passes are about--"confidence builders," my buttafuoco

Listening to the endless permutations of the "quarterback controversy" on sports radio is remarkably similar to the aforementioned icepick-to-the-back of-the-noggin, though.