Running Bears hit their stride
Was he great Monday night? Did he lead the Bears to their 42-27 victory over St. Louis?
No, neither of those things. We didn't learn that Grossman can win games. What the Bears discovered was how to win around him, not in spite of him. They finally stopped treating Grossman like a lottery ticket, win or lose, hit or miss, and instead based an offense around a running game.
He is not ready to lead an offense by gunslinging. But the Bears found ways to run a fluid offense, including Grossman. They found that it's possible for him not to throw every game into jeopardy.
''Rex Grossman went through a lot this past week,'' coach Lovie Smith said. ''His game has been dissected by everyone who knows anything about football. He stepped up to the plate. Why would I make a quarterback change now?''
As the Bears walked into their locker room after the game, one of his teammates yelled, ''They're gonna love you now, Rex.'' And even Grossman seemed a little miffed at the criticism he had heard all week. There was a definite tone of I-told-you-so.
''Yeah, I was able to relax,'' he said. ''There was a lot of pressure on me to do that.''
But surely they know what happened: The Bears did what they should have been doing all along, managing the game around Grossman.
Thomas Jones broke the game open with two long runs in the third quarter. Cedric Benson kept putting his head down and ramming defenders backward a couple of yards. And even running back Adrian Peterson -- is he still on the team? -- took a little dump pass from Rex Grossman midway in the third quarter and charged forward 32 yards. He also scored a touchdown.
The Bears moved the ball by being the Bears again. It's funny how some things never change with certain franchises. The game changes, the players change and yet you watch fullback Jason McKie lumber around the right side and smash Rams cornerback Tye Hill so hard that his helmet goes bouncing down the field, and you think:
Da Bears.
I'll admit it: I didn't think they had this in them. I didn't think they could play smashmouth on offense. And maybe it's too early to say anything has changed because the Rams have a terrible run defense. But I do think the Bears found their style in St. Louis.
I mean, Grossman had a good game, but that's because the running game opened things up for him. Devin Hester's two kick returns didn't hurt, either. But we already knew he could do that.
What we didn't know was whether the offense could work.
It did a few weeks ago against the Jets, by running game, and Smith talked about Chicago Bear football, in that traditional way. The next week, the focus went back to Grossman.
Why? Well, that was about matching up offensive styles against defenses. You can run on the Jets. You can run on the Rams.
But the Bears are going to have to stick with this no matter what defense they play against. Their last three games are all exhibitions, against lowly teams. And it's the perfect time to start developing the running game and stop worrying so much about Grossman.
But you can get to the Super Bowl without a super quarterback. That requires a running game.
A running game is an attitude in the NFL moreso than a question of skill. And the Bears have committed to it enough.
Maybe there's still time.
But they should have done it from the start Monday, against that defense, and they didn't. By halftime, they had run for just 65 yards, and that included Grossman's 22-yard scramble. In the third quarter, they ran for 91 yards.
And if defenses start to respect the Bears' running game, they'll be forced to back off Grossman.
Who should do the running? My preference is Benson. Jones dances when he gets the ball, and as soon as someone hits him, he stops moving his feet and falls down. Benson is moving forward the second he gets the ball and is better at finding the holes than Jones. When Benson is tackled, he falls forward two yards.
For the first time, it looked like the running game was finding a natural rhythm. Smith tried to jam Benson into the starting spot before the season, before he had earned it. And the team backed Jones and turned Benson into an outcast.
Maybe the Bears still have time to get it right before the playoffs. Maybe the answer to the Grossman problem has been that easy: Just let the Bears be the Bears. It's their only choice.
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