Staying the course risky in football, too
Now it's a slogan at Halas Hall as Bears coach Lovie Smith stubbornly has decided to stick with struggling quarterback Rex Grossman.
You almost have to admire the coach for sticking to his guns, or rather his gunslinger. The easy move -- some might suggest the wise move -- would be to bow to the will of the fans and the media and pull Grossman in favor of backup Brian Griese.
''You are a writer,'' Smith told a reporter. ''You don't come in here and say: 'What should I write? What should I do?' You go on what you think you should do. Right now, what we're doing ... we're 10-2 is what we're doing. I'm just asking everybody to stay with us. We have a plan. Let it play out.''
The situation is complicated by the fact that the Bears have a legitimate option at quarterback. But the issue is not Brian Griese. It's not about whether he failed in Denver, or why he has bounced around the league, or if he has the leadership ability to take a team to the Super Bowl. Those are considerations for another day.
Smith insists every personnel decision he makes is based on giving the team the best chance to win. He says Grossman does that. He has decided to stay the course in part because of the success the player had in the first five games of the season.
''I've seen Rex play well,'' Smith said. ''And that's what you have to go on. We have a lot of football left to go, we're just getting ready to start the last quarter of the season. I have, we have seen Rex play well. Offensively, our numbers are up. It had a lot to do with our quarterback, and I think he will get back to that point.''
Apparently, that is the differentiation Smith makes in his decision to stay with Grossman vs. the decision to bail on Kyle Orton last season. Orton was pulled at halftime of a December game against Atlanta after completing 2-of-10 passes for 12 yards, putting up a 29.6 passer rating. He had no touchdowns in that game, but no interceptions. Orton wound up starting again in the season finale at Minnesota and finished the season with 13 interceptions and nine touchdowns with a 59.7 passer rating.
Orton threw for more than 200 yards only twice last season, but he only had one really terrible game, a five-interception outing against Cincinnati. Grossman had a great game this season against Seattle and was exceptional for the first half against San Francisco. He hasn't played well in at least four of the last five games. He has been awful in four of the last seven.
If the Bears were fighting for a playoff spot -- if they were in the same situation as Dallas, for instance -- they couldn't afford to stay with him. But since they have a two-game lead in the NFC, they are not in a panic to replace him. It's a dangerous situation. If Grossman plays poorly again and the Bears lose at St. Louis next Monday night and New Orleans beats Dallas on Sunday, the lead in the NFC would be down to one game.
The Bears have a much easier finish to their season than New Orleans, Dallas or Seattle, but still need to secure home-field advantage to increase their Super Bowl chances. With eight days to prepare for St. Louis, it makes sense to make a quarterback switch now to use all the time left to smooth the transition.
Instead, the team appears to be putting the interests of one player ahead of the collective good. Are they more interested in protecting a former first-round draft pick or winning the Super Bowl? Consider the strange finish to Sunday's game when instead of attempting to run out the clock, the Bears were passing to try to create some success for Grossman.
''First, win the game,'' Smith said. ''That is what we were doing. But we have to still continue to run our offense. We're not just thinking short-term. I thought we had the game under control. We have to run our offense. Part of running our offense and getting ready for next week is to finish off on a high note -- get Rex some good things going at the end of the football game.
''I like what we did. It's all about execution. We didn't execute as well as we need to. We get another chance this week.''
Grossman gets another chance, too. Smith will stick with him right up to the point where he doesn't stick with him anymore. He's saying all the right things now, but the situation is fluid and could change as fast as a bad turnover.
Mike Mulligan and Sun-Times reporter Brian Hanley host a daily show from 10 a.m.-noon on WSCR-AM (670).