Grossman returns to early season form
CHICAGO -- Perhaps it was having the home field. Perhaps it was sage advice from his offensive coordinator.
Whatever the reason, Bears quarterback Rex Grossman looked every bit as good in Sunday's 41-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers as he was bad in the Oct. 16 24-23 win at Arizona.
"Well, we got some first downs and got into a rhythm pretty quick," Grossman said, after completing a career-best 79 percent of his passes (23-of-29) for 252 yards and three touchdowns. "That always helps, but it was just a different game and learning from some of my mistakes and getting better."That's the key in this league and the key in anything you do really, just learn from your mistakes and try to apply them to the next time you do it."Grossman had completed 14-of-37 for 144 yards with four interceptions against Arizona. He hadn't been above 56.1 percent completions in his last four games.
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"He did a great job checking down; he made great decisions," Turner said. "We talked a lot about that during the bye week and during this week."I think he hopefully understands that if he runs the offense and takes what's there, good things are going to happen and we'll move the ball. We don't want him to not be aggressive, which, he will be. Take your shots when they're there and if not, don't hesitate to dump the ball down. I think he probably learned today, and really, honestly, through seven games he's done that six of the seven."Grossman's ability to check down and be aggressive was never more apparent than just before halftime. He tossed one into the flat with his receivers downfield covered, and fullback Jason McKie turned it into a 26-yard gain down the sidelines. One play later, he went up top 27 yards to tight end Desmond Clark for the touchdown just before halftime.
Clark set his own high mark as a Bear for both catches and receiving yards with six catches and 86 yards.
"If they want to double the outside guys and we have an opportunity to get the ball to somebody else to make plays, it opens up a lot of other things," Turner said.Turner expected something like Sunday's effort from Grossman.
"He had a great week of preparation," Turner said. "He had a really good week of practice, great week of preparation and carried it to the field."Didn't have to say a lot today. It was all done before that."Grossman's two worst games came on the road. Against Minnesota his passer rating was 64.9 and at Arizona 10.7. Every other game it's been 98.6 or higher.
"I think that's the NFL, and team-wise, we're a lot better football team at home than we are on the road," coach Lovie Smith said. "But you have to be able to score on the road and win football games."We've still gone on the road and won but we do need to play a little bit better."Turner pointed out Grossman was sharp on the road in Green Bay (18-of-26, 262 yards).
"I think it's just maybe the way the games have gone," Turner said. "His numbers at Green Bay were pretty good. At Minnesota, OK, not great, and obviously Arizona not very good."I think it depends kind of how the flow of the game goes."Smith called Grossman's effort predictable.
"Any time you don't play as well as you would like, you want to come back and have the type of game that you're capable of having. And that's Rex," he said. "All quarterbacks will have a bad game here and there, but the good ones don't have a lot of bad games."Rex is a good quarterback and we thought he would come out and play the way he did today."
Rex ReboundsBears Notebook
