<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Let me give it to you real, Lovie Smith, as you stand up there in your ''NFC North Champions'' T-shirt and wonder snippily why the media aren't trading high-fives with you. If Rex Grossman remains your quarterback, your season goes splat in January. You won't see a contract extension, the city will call for a full-blown probe of your pedigree and years of Bears disgust will plummet lower than Lower Wacker Drive.Oh, and I would encourage the defense and Devin Hester to stage a Halas Hall mutiny, complete with picket signs and directions to the nearest Lasik specialist.The question is how a 10-2 team resolves the palpable fear and imminent gloom that gripped Soldier Field every time Grossman threw the ball Sunday. The answer is Brian Griese, of course, but Smith still isn't budging off his stubborn and increasingly indefensible backing of a player gone stinking-rotten bad. Who says the Bears aren't trying to make history? They're apparently angling to be the first franchise to win a Super Bowl without a quarterback, noting how Grossman's passer rating against the Minnesota Vikings -- they of the NFL's second-worst pass defense -- resembled one of my college grade-point averages: 1.3. Actually, it might represent the median IQ of the coaching staff, which continues to stand by Rex even after he produced his fifth poor performance in his last seven and pushed his turnover number to 18 in those seven games with three more agonizing interceptions.The most telling snapshot wasn't the postgame division celebration, which a proud coach and team would have abandoned while knowing the collective record of the NFC North is 11-25. No, it was the sight of Muhsin Muhammad, Bernard Berrian, Olin Kreutz and other offensive players motioning for fans in the south end zone to stop booing Grossman. Much as a great defense keeps bailing him out, and dazzling as Hester has been in providing a gamebreaking dimension absent on offense, now hear this: The Bears can't win a championship with a passing game that produced 24 net yards, six first downs and only three more completions (six) than interceptions. This is particularly true if Tommie Harris, who could have a serious knee injury and limped home on crutches, can't wreak terror in the defensive trenches as he did for two months. What Sis-Boom-Bah Lovie doesn't understand is this bit of Chicago sports sociology: Having absorbed too many postseason heartbreaks the last 20 seasons, a tortured football town has learned to disregard the regular season as fluff and project how the Bears will fare in their first playoff game.'We're 10-2 with him' is a jokeRight now, with Grossman playing worse than Kyle Orton during his worst hangover, does anyone have faith? Somehow, Lovie does, citing the warped logic that the Bears are 10-2 with Rex at the helm. Doesn't he understand the Bears are 10-2 in spite of Rex? Hey, it's Smith's career, his daily existence in Chicago.''Rex is our quarterback,'' he said, again, after a shaky 23-13 win over a lackluster opponent. ''He's not as accurate as he needs to be and he turned the ball over, but we've won with him. There's a difference between perception and reality, and the reality is, we're 10-2 with Rex. When we win the division title, I'm not going to tell you about all the things we're going to do to change what we have going right now. Because there's not a lot.''Not armed with a psychology degree, I don't know if Lovie is deluding himself or in complete denial. But it doesn't require much insight to know the defense saved Rex's tail all three times. In the first quarter, after his ill-advised toss to Rashied Davis was picked Jason Taylor-like by Napoleon Harris, the Bears defense forced a punt. In the second quarter, when one of those scary deep balls for Berrian was easily intercepted by Antoine Winfield, the defense forced another punt. In the third quarter, when another tipped pass was intercepted, Lance Briggs responded with an instant pick of Vikings dinosaur Brad Johnson. How fascinating to see Minnesota coach Brad Childress yank Johnson for Brooks Bollinger, and later, Tarvaris Jackson.But Lovie stuck with Rex. Maybe the coach should sit down with his quarterback and gauge his confidence level before proceeding. Much as Grossman insists he'll break out of his ''little slump,'' we've been hearing it too long without positive results.''I wasn't very good, especially on my first pick,'' he said. ''I should have focused on what Rashied was doing, not the middle linebacker. It was a poor read at a crucial time early in the game. On the third one, that stuff happens. On the second one, I should have checked down -- the play wasn't really there.''Same old excusesWoulda, shoulda, coulda. Here in the City of Weak Shoulders, the town where quarterbacks go to die, no one wants to hear the same excuses with so much at stake and the NFC so winnable. Pressed for answers, Grossman sounded like a head case.''I'm thinking too much. I'm trying to analyze too much, and I'm making it more complicated than it is,'' he said. ''I just need to play and react. That's easy to say, but harder to accomplish.''Again, it's something we need to fix. It's a simple formula to fix, and I'm not panicking or anything. I have to go back to work and play the way I did earlier this year. I know what my abilities are. I know I can do it. I just have to go out and play. Nothing can shake my confidence.''Well, maybe this comment will. ''As a defense, we don't worry about what the offense does,'' said Brian Urlacher, who has been burned by weak offenses too often in his career. ''As long as we're forcing takeaways and scoring touchdowns, we don't worry. They'll come around.''Will they? All I know is, Grossman was dressed down last week by Vikings safety Darren Sharper for participating in September trash-talking. It was important for Rex to respond strongly -- for his own self-esteem and his reputation in the locker room and around the league. After responding poorly, guess who was yapping again? ''We knew coming in what type of quarterback he was,'' Sharper said. ''We held him to 24 yards net -- that's what we should hold a quarterback like that to.''He knows that. You know that. I know that. Why doesn't Lovie know that?And if he ever figures it out, will it be too late?</div>http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/159005,...T-jay04.article:beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2::beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2: :beerbang2:
