Foes getting a read on Rex
There was 5-10, 185-pound Asante Samuel, a fourth-year cornerback out of Central Florida, clad in a black Boston Red Sox cap, massive white sweatshirt and even more massive blue jeans, attempting to walk while holding three official NFL ''The Duke'' game footballs.
''Got to keep them for my kids and grandkids,'' he said, stooping to pick up the rolling souvenir.
Each of the three orbs represented an intercepted Grossman pass, and it was obviously easier for Samuel to grab them singly out of the night sky than to hold them as a bundle.
''Man, I could have had a fourth one,'' said Samuel, who easily could have. Earlier he had joked that he could have had six pickoffs. ''I left a couple balls on the field.''
Short of Samuel needing a wheelbarrow to leave the locker room, the sad point about Grossman and his bad decisions/inaccuracy had been made.
''They did a great job of pattern reading,'' Grossman said of the Patriots' secondary.
Maybe. But that shouldn't be enough to stop every important drive.
Indeed, it was the final interception by Samuel, stopping the Bears on the first play of what could've been a classic two-minute, game-ending, legend-building drive for a victory touchdown, that looked like the cement warehouse in front of Grossman's career.
The deep ball into the post was intended for little Rashied Davis --Samuel's no giant, but he's bigger than the former Arena baller -- and Samuel leaped high to grab the pass to finish the Bears and complete his collection.
Maybe Grossman didn't know that Samuel, who has played right corner all year, was finally on the left side, his preferred spot, where he played all last season.
''This was my first game back on the left,'' Samuel crowed. ''I can see the ball better, get the break off my right foot because I'm right-handed. I love that side.''
Should you know that as a quarterback?
Are Grossman's flaws correctable?
There's no way you make a final conclusion about any NFL quarterback after only 19 career starts, regular and postseason, especially when that quarterback has a 13-6 record and has played spectacularly at times, as has Grossman.
But Rex has reeked in three of the Bears' last six games -- two of them losses, with another a narrow escape over Arizona -- and his 10 turnovers in those bad games seem to indicate a flaw in his makeup that could be his undoing.
The parallel might be the hot young baseball pitcher who scorches the majors until the All-Star break, then hitters learn to hold off on his forkball.
For Grossman, that's his fling-it-up-there ball, and defenders are learning to expect it and go after it.
''It was throw the ball up, and either they're going to make a play on the ball or hopefully they're going to get a pass-interference call,'' said Patriots free safety Atrell Hawkins of the Bears' game plan.
That may have worked earlier against weaker teams, but it's not a formula to pin Super Bowl dreams on.
''Rex is our quarterback,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said with a combination of firmness and irritation that could be interpreted as impatience.
The Bears had numerous chances to win this swap-fest, with all its turnovers (nine by both sides), but not when Grossman was hoping more than creating.
What team can withstand four turnovers from the quarterback and a completion rate of 44 percent?
The fling-the-ball strategy can work when the defensive backs are lousy, the refs are throwing flags, your receivers are open and your accuracy is dead-on.
Something abut the way the 6-4 Brady operates just says class and confidence and superiority.
''Ultimate poise,'' is how Bears linebacker Lance Briggs described Brady. ''A guy that's in his realm. This is what he does best.''
Brady threw interceptions, too, but they didn't doom him and his team.
And his 11-yard scramble and Brian Urlacher facial on a key first down showed something that's not in Grossman's arsenal.
The Bears now are 9-2 and still far in the lead in their division.
But this game didn't bode well for them, certainly not if these same teams happen to meet again in the Super Bowl.
And it didn't bode well at all for the Bears' offensive leader.
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