Rex gives Bears air of invincibility

A potent Bears offense has long seemed an oxymoron, like a dignified Paris Hilton. But if the '06 Bears are to go all the way, they need to keep moving the ball through the air in the amazing way they've been doing.

Everybody knows the Bears will run -- they had 143 yards rushing Sunday night in their 37-6 pasting of the Seahawks -- but passing?

Like the big boys?

''Whenever you can put that many points on the scoreboard, you know you're doing something right,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said.

Just check out their second drive for a snapshot of the way things could be, the way they have been for four games now.

Rex Grossman marched the Bears 69 yards up the field for the first touchdown as precisely as a drum major leading a corps of fifers and baton twirlers.

He threw left, right, short, medium, middle, in and out -- completing six of seven passes for 57 yards, including a bullet nine-yard score to wideout Muhsin Muhammad.

Not only did his passes have touch and speed, some came from awkward positions, such as when he hit tight end Desmond Clark for a 14-yard gain while going backward under a fierce rush and throwing off his back foot.

And field leadership?

There it was with two third-down conversions and a two-yard gain on fourth-and-one by Grossman himself.

''Things just snowballed,'' Grossman said.

''You don't expect things like this,'' Smith said.

Again, there are things people simply know about the Bears: They'll run, they'll attack, they'll hit you with a middle-linebacker-fueled defense, they'll hunt your spleen.

But have an accurate, dynamic passing attack?

Honest to God, it was such a short time ago that make-believe quarterbacks named Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson and Jonathan Quinn horrified Chicago fans and a raw rookie named Kyle Orton tried to be what he was not, that this new offensive efficiency is difficult to comprehend.

The Seahawks have a good defense, and they were in the Super Bowl last season.

But Grossman seemed unfazed by any of it, completing 17 of 31 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns.

At the end of September, he was named the NFC offensive player of the month, receiving an award never won by a Bears quarterback.

And his four-game total of 1,061 passing yards just doesn't compute for those of us who remember too well Kordell Stewart, Henry Burris and Cade McNown throwing pie plates into the wind.

How about the drive Grossman engineered at the end of the third quarter, with the Bears already having shocked the Seahawks into a 27-6 hole?

Grossman had the look of confidence that we Chicagoans have come to expect in other teams' quarterbacks, never ours.

The last play of that 73-yard drive was a 40-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Bernard Berrian that Grossman placed gently on the speedster's outstretched hands at the goal line, like a rare vase carefully spiraled from a flaming building.

There's no denying the importance of the Bears' bruising defense in this roll to 4-0.

But we knew about the ''D.''

Maybe we didn't know Ricky Manning Jr. would get two interceptions off usually accurate Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

But we knew defensive tackle Tommie Harris was damned good, and we knew linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs were the real deal.

Indeed, Briggs and Urlacher stay on the field when other teams would go to a dime coverage with fleet defensive backs replacing them.

Urlacher broke up a pass in the end zone Sunday, and Briggs tackled speedy wide receiver Darrell Jackson for a one-yard loss after a completion.

Who needs corners when your big fellows are that athletic, that swift?

I'm guessing a lot of people switched off their TV sets before this late-night rout was over, unless they were mystified by this new offense.

Now everything that foes thought they knew about the Bears has to be rethought. For instance, which team will be the first to say, ''How about we concede the run and game-plan this freak, Grossman?''

It should be done.

Grossman now has thrown eight touchdown passes, two a game, and he's on pace to crush the Bears' season passing record of 3,838 yards, set by Erik Kramer in 1995.

The passing wouldn't mean much if it didn't come in the context of the Bears' basic game plan: establish the run, squash 'em with defense, blow their minds with the pass.

Berrian and Muhammad now know they will get the ball when they're open.

''Thirty-seven to 6 just shows what we're capable of,'' Grossman said.

No luck, no magic involved.

We never knew this before.

This blowout had to shake up NFL watchers around the country.

Wow. Rex is real.

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