You understand the temptation. National audience. Dallas Cowboys. Chip still firmly attached to the Bears’ ample shoulders since last February in South Florida.
This stubborn pride, if that’s what it is, that it’s not enough to possess one of the best defenses in the NFL, they must also prove their offense is something that it clearly is not.
Amid the continued cries for Rex Grossman to sling the ball as far as he can sling it for surely something magical will happen, we continue to be shown that it does not have to be that difficult.
If you have a perfectly fine personality, no reason to embarrass yourself in the middle of the dance floor pretending you’re Justin Timberlake.
No reason to put your very valuable and very skinny kicker in harm’s way on an imminently makable, albeit longish, 53-yard field goal tied 3-3 with 1:11 remaining in the first half.
No reason for Cedric Benson to slip into bad habits and pretend he is former Bear James Allen, jump-stopping to find holes and thus stopping his momentum.
And no reason whatsoever for Grossman to pretend he’s Tony Romo because, alas, he is not even Joey Harrington.
Did the Bears draft Grossman to be a good game manager? No. And in the annals of team history, Jim Miller will not be revered as a great quarterback. But Miller never tried to be something he wasn’t. He also didn’t make many mistakes in his two years as starter, the Bears going 13-3 in one of them.
The best thing the Bears’ offense did all night was their first unremarkable scoring drive — resulting in a 20-yard field goal by Gould — that ate up 7:28 on 15 plays, 7:28 that Tony Romo and the Cowboys offense had to sit on the sideline.
The Bears managed 10:39 of decent-enough offense in the first quarter, including 18 yards on Cedric Benson’s first two carries of the game.
But then Bernard Berrian dropped the first of two passes in the half — both deep in Dallas territory. And Benson went to sleep with 11 yards on seven carries in the next drive.
Grossman to Berrian was good enough to keep the drive going long enough and far enough for Gould to kick the 20-yarder, so it didn’t matter. And the Bears’ defense, as it so often does, bailed them out on the next Dallas series with an interception. But then there was Grossman negating that momentum with a pick of his own.
By the second quarter, Romo was reminding those at Soldier Field and TV land that he is a very talented, very mobile quarterback who can regularly avoid rushers whereas his Bears’ counterpart, uh, can’t.
“Rex Grossman almost has to have perfect pass protection,” said John Madden, being kind.
Grossman does not, maybe cannot, step up fearlessly in the pocket as Romo did on third-and-11 from the Cowboys’ 7-yard line midway through the third quarter and fire to his receiver, in this case Terrell Owens who scampered 36 yards to spark an eventual scoring drive and 17-10 lead.
Coming out in that second half, the weight of a logy offense again weighing heavy on the Bears defense’s shoulders, it was as if the Cowboys looked at each other and said, “Are you kidding? Just score once, for crying out loud. These guys aren’t doing anything.”
When Grossman dived for a first down during the third-quarter drive that appeared to be going nowhere and had drawn the first boos of the night, it showed the simple survival instinct that works more often than not.
Sure enough, it preceded a 52-yard catch-and-run to Desmond Clark. And then, on a pattern we’re sure to see again this season assuming the Bears ever make it back to the red zone, Grossman found rookie tight end Greg Olsen for the Bears’ first touchdown of the night and second offensive touchdown this season.
But this was as good as it would get. Grossman presses and the whole team gets tight. Even Devin Hester. Even the vaunted defense.
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Not long after the first of the boos came raining down, came chants of “Griese, Griese.” And by the 10-minute mark of the fourth, the boys in the NBC booth were teeing off, evoking the name of Donovan McNabb and boldly questioning the Bears’ future under Grossman.
Why not Griese? Heck, why not Kyle Orton? At least the Bears coaching staff seem to know what they’ve got in the Bears backup QBs. At least there are no unfair expectations.
At least they wouldn’t pretend they’re Justin Timberlake.
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