Three Super Bowl winners changed quarterbacks during the season because of poor play rather than injury.
– The 1971 Dallas Cowboys went from Craig Morton to Roger Staubach.
– The 1987 Washington Redskins went from Jay Schroeder to Doug Williams.
– The 2000 Baltimore Ravens went from Tony Banks to Trent Dilfer.
None of the situations closely parallels what Lovie Smith’s Bears face with Rex Grossman and Brian Griese. All were more desperate circumstances. None of the benched quarterbacks were coming off a minuscule 1.3 passer rating, but their teams weren’t 10-2 either, and coasting toward the playoffs.
The 2000 Ravens were the team most like the Bears, with a stifling defense and the kind of ball-control running attack the Bears like to think they have. A quarterback who flings the ball around wasn’t necessary, yet coach Brian Billick had journeyman starter Banks throwing 34 times per game.
After the Ravens went four straight games without scoring a touchdown on offense, defense or special teams while falling to 5-3, Billick switched to Dilfer. With Billick cutting back to 27 passes per game, and Dilfer handing off more to rookie power back Jamal Lewis, the Ravens went 7-1 the second half of the season and won the Super Bowl as a wild-card playoff team.
The 1987 Redskins scrambled all season, going back and forth because of injuries and a players’ strike. Schroeder started the final five games but slumped the last two weeks and was benched in the finale after throwing two interceptions.
The Redskins finished 11-4 in the strike-shortened season with Schroeder starting 10 games and Williams two. Coach Joe Gibbs named Williams to open the playoffs in Chicago and the rest is history.
The 1971 Cowboys were the weirdest. Coach Tom Landry didn’t know whether to start Morton or Staubach so he started both–Morton four times and Staubach three on the way to a 4-3 record.
Things got so crazy that on Oct. 31 at Soldier Field, Landry alternated Morton and Staubach on every play against the Bears. After the Bears beat them 23-19, Landry went with Staubach for the rest of the season and the Cowboys won 10 in a row, including the playoffs.
In that case, Landry’s indecisiveness was as big a culprit as poor play by the quarterbacks.
Whatever Smith ends up doing, alternating Grossman and Griese would not appear to be among the options.
If there is a common denominator in the three situations, it is that the coaches were practically backed against a wall. Coaching decisions often make themselves.
Figuring Grossman can’t get worse than 1.3, Smith has opted to let him try to play through this. The precedent is their exhibitions, when Grossman got booed and Smith got ripped for not naming Griese the starter for the season opener.
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Grossman completed only 51.9 percent of his exhibition passes and threw for only one touchdown and two interceptions for a 60.7 rating. Griese completed 67.9 percent and threw for four touchdowns and no interceptions for a 141.7 rating. Grossman rebounded in a brief final exhibition appearance but still hadn’t won many backers entering the regular season. Yet Grossman ended up NFC player of the month for September and then posted three of his five 100-plus passer rating days in October.
Grossman is a reminder of the nursery rhyme of the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. “When he is good, he is very, very good and when he is bad he is horrid.”
Because the Bears have clinched the competitively challenged NFC North and could practically back into home-field advantage with remaining games against the lowly Rams, Bucs, Lions and Packers, there is no reason to pull the plug on Grossman prematurely.
What is prematurely?
Obviously, if Grossman stays horrid, Griese will play. Smith may be stubborn, but he’s not stupid. But there is no reason to play Griese for four games to get him ready for the playoffs. On the other hand, there is every reason to allow Grossman all the time possible to play his way out of the slump. Why? Because his upside has been determined, or at least visualized, to be superior to Griese’s.
The Bears figure they have waited four years for Grossman. In his first three, injuries prevented him from getting beyond three games. The last thing they want to do is stop him short of his potential. To suggest the Bears already have seen all they need to see of Grossman is shortsighted.
At what point does Smith try to project beyond the easy regular-season schedule into the playoffs and speculate which quarterback gives him the best chance? Three games? Two games? One game? That’s the tightrope he walks. Grossman helped him Thursday when he admitted the zero hour is approaching fast, and that doesn’t mean his next passer rating.
Smith has been accused of living in a state of denial, but he may be comfortably residing in the knowledge that most coaching decisions make themselves sooner or later.
And it’s still too soon to do something that doesn’t need to be done at this moment and might not have to be done at all.
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