Chicago – Merely through his wildly inconsistent play at quarterback, Rex Grossman had brought this City of Broad Shoulders into a collective slouch.
Normally, Chicago is fiercely protective and unwaveringly optimistic regarding its sports teams. See the Cubs with their 99-year championship drought and sellout crowds at Wrigley Field. That “Saturday Night Live” skit where the sausage-gut Ditka disciples predict 77-0 routs for da Bears? What makes it funny is how it strikes so close to the true Windy City spirit.
Yet, before the Bears defeated the Seattle Seahawks 27-24 in a back-and-forth, overtime heart-stopper Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field, skepticism hovered thicker in Chicagoland than its chilled, overcast skies. There wasn’t so much expectation of a Bears victory as hope Grossman wouldn’t lose it.
He was too much big play, bad play. At 6-feet-1, Grossman is an inch shorter than Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer. Know what they call Grossman in Chicagoland? Good Rex/Bad Rex.
“I think you give yourself too much credit on how you affect me,” Grossman said. “It affects my family more than it does me.”
The Bears’ faithless were so pessimistic, the no-show count Sunday numbered an incredible 6,659. And the weather wasn’t that bad. So much for that supposedly tough Bears town.
Luckily for the Bears, Grossman is tougher than absentee critics.
He answered Seattle’s game- tying touchdown on the first play of the second quarter by throwing a 68-yard, regain- the-lead scoring strike to Bernard Berrian on the quarter’s second play.
Then, after the game nervously moved into overtime, it was Grossman’s 30-yard completion down the right seam to Rashied Davis that set up Robbie Gould’s game-winning, 49-yard field goal.
The Bears advanced to the NFC championship game, to be played Sunday against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field.
“If you want to win the Super Bowl, you can’t have a quarterback who just manages games,” Bears center Olin Kreutz said. “Grossman is talented enough to win you a game. He showed that today. That’s why, no matter what people have said about Grossman, we’ve always said he’s our quarterback. And we believe it. I know it’s easy to say now because we just won, but the reason why we say that is he’s capable of making a big play.”
Before this game, Grossman’s erratic performance, coupled with a no-longer-invincible Chicago defense, had so soured the mood around here, it caused all-pro middle linebacker Brian Urlacher to sarcastically categorize his Bears as “the worst 13-3 team ever.”
They are now 14-3 entering their meeting against the surprising Saints. And if Grossman is the reason Chicagoans do not yet dare dream of Miami and Super Bowl XLI, perhaps his 282 yards passing – a mere 4 yards off the team’s playoff record set by Sid Luckman in 1943 – will help straighten the city’s posture.
Even Grossman’s lone interception, from the Seattle 10-yard line early in the fourth quarter, wasn’t his fault, as the pass first bounced off the normally sure hands of Muhsin Muhammad before ricocheting to the Seahawks’ Pete Hunter.
“What I’ve learned is he knows how to bounce back from tough situations,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said of Grossman. “He’s been roasted the last couple weeks on all different types of things. But he’s our quarterback, and what we see is when you push him up against the wall, he knows exactly how to come out fighting.”
On the very next play with the Seahawks ahead 24-21, Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck rolled out and promptly gave the ball back to the Bears with an interception.
“This will be one that we think about for a long time,” Hasselbeck said.
No doubt, the Seahawks are justifiably feeling they should have won, but everyone could see Grossman didn’t lose it.
“He’s a tough guy, a mentally tough guy,” said Bears running back Thomas Jones, who had first-half touchdowns runs of 9 and 7 yards. “You have to be to go through some of the things he’s had to go through.”
Next, the Saints will come marching into Chicago.
“This is an unbelievable situation we’re in right now,” Grossman said. “We win one game and we’re in the Super Bowl. We’re two wins away from having a ring on my finger the rest of my life.”
Let that thought sink in, Chicago.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
