Good Rex, Bad Rex, and the Chicago Bears

You wouldn't know it from such a pessimistic tone but last Sunday this team wrapped up one of the better regular seasons in Chicago Bears history. A 13-3 record. A first round bye with home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Seven Pro Bowlers. A legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate. The first Bear running back since Neal Anderson in 1989 and 1990 to post back-to-back 1,000-plus yard rushing seasons. The first Bear quarterback since Eric Kramer in 1997 to pass for 3,000-plus yards in a single season. And, considering that injury-prone Rex Grossman, the QB in question, actually started all 16 games without so much as a minor muscle strain (while setting a Chicago Bears single-season record of seven games at a 100-plus passer rating), all this gloom and doom might seem just a little bit misplaced. Indeed, Chicago Bears fans ought to be outright happy, right?

Wrong.

Momentum, that all-important intangible for so many gridiron analysts, is in scarce supply for the NFC playoff-bound Chicago Bears. The Monsters of the Midway, with quarterback Rex Grossman at the helm, are limping into the 2006 postseason as perhaps the worst 13-3 team in NFL history. After eking out narrow victories against the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the even lowlier Detroit Lions in weeks 15 and 16, respectively, the Bears followed up with an abysmal 26-7 loss to their archrival Green Bay Packers in the season finale.

Embarrassing.

Sadly, another "one-and-done" performance by the NFC North Champions this January is not only the fear but the expectation now of so many Chicago Bears faithful. According to one impromptu poll taken at WSCR, sports radio 670-AM, upwards of 75% of their listeners expect another swift exit for their beloved Chicago team this postseason. Just like last year's disappointing first-round NFC playoff loss (at home) to the Carolina Panthers. Just like 2001's first-round NFC playoff loss (at home) to the Philadelphia Eagles. (In fact, since winning Superbowl XX under coach Mike Ditka in 1986, the Monsters of the Midway have gone one-and-done in seven of their eight NFC playoff appearances.)

The key to all this fan anxiety, of course, goes beyond mere history, and it has everything to do with the inconsistent play of starting quarterback, Rex Grossman. To say he has been inconsistent is actually an understatement; Grossman, in fact, has gone absolutely bi-polar this season. I think it was WSCR afternoon co-host Dan Bernstein who coined the terms "Good Rex" and "Bad Rex" to describe the ongoing quarterback controversy in Chicago -- a controversy pitting Rex Grossman vs. Rex Grossman. Whichever one decides to show up on any given Sunday will determine the fate of the Chicago Bears.

Through the first five weeks of the season Grossman looked to be a legitimate contender for league MVP. He and the Colts' Peyton Manning were actually mentioned in the same sentence, and for more than a few early prognosticators the two QBs looked to be destined for a Superbowl showdown in Miami come February 4, 2007. But just when the football world was ready to "crown their ass," the other spiked cleat dropped for the Chicago Bears in a forgettable week 6 Monday Night match-up with the Arizona Cardinals. The Bears won, 24-23, in spite of Rex Grossman and his six turnovers -- four interceptions and two fumbles.

The following week Good Rex returned, completing 23 of 29 passing attempts for 252 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-10 thumping of the San Francisco 49ers.

The team would be unable to overcome another shoddy performance by their schizophrenic quarterback in week 8, however, as the Miami Dolphins handed the Chicago Bears loss number one on the season. It was a 31-13 shellacking complete with three interceptions and a lost fumble courtesy of Bad Rex. And so it went, fans never knowing just which Grossman was going to show up at quarterback; only that he would be wearing number "8."

But it was another victory several weeks later -- a 23-13 defeat of the division rival Minnesota Vikings, in a game which actually clinched the NFC North title for the Chicago Bears -- where Grossman hit what was then thought to be rock bottom. A 1.3 passer rating against the 31^st ranked pass defense in the league. An NFL record. The lowest passer rating ever posted by a winning quarterback. Again, Bad Rex achieved this against a woeful Vikings pass defense, making it an almost inconceivable feat.

For Grossman, unbelievably, it actually got worse. A passer rating of 0.0 in week 16 -- a game in which he had as many interceptions returned for touchdowns as actual completions to someone wearing the Bear uniform -- was the last thing Bears fans wanted to see closing out the season, regardless of whether or not this game was "meaningless." The Chicago Bears thus entered the NFC playoffs with Bad Rex -- spectacularly Bad Rex -- leaving his worst performance of the season out on the field and an entire city full of armchair analysts with two full weeks to bemoan the coming of another postseason let down.

It may be that Rex Grossman will rise up from his gridiron malaise to rescue Chicago Bears football fans from their postseason anxieties; "making each play," as the song goes, "clear the way to victory." It can happen. It was just a few weeks ago that Good Rex resurfaced to post a robust 104.3 passer rating in that 24-21 overtime victory against Tampa Bay. He had 29 completions on 44 attempts for 339 yards and 2 TDs. Not bad. Indeed, the player who was the most dominant early season offensive force in the NFC, Good Rex, never seems to linger too far off while his uninvited and far less talented doppelganger takes the field.

So, there is hope that it may not be one-and-done yet again.

After all, the competition in the NFC is not all that great. With a Seattle victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a New York loss to Philly, it will be the Seahawks coming to Soldier Field to play the Chicago Bears next Sunday. (Of course, I was kinda counting on a Giants win, so that I could use something along the lines of "... so many Liilliputions ..." to tie in to that Glum reference above ... Oh well.) If Good Rex does show up, his Bears ought to easily handle the Seahawks, who they defeated soundly, 37-6, in week 4 of the regular season.

And then Chicago Bears fans can panic over whether it will be the Good Rex Grossman or Bad Rex Grossman leading their team into the NFC Championship.