Grossman: I'm Focused on Being Focused

Saw Rex Grossman talking to the media, saying "Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it, mmhmmm." Not really, but Yikes, Rex, Yikes.

The Bears loss to Green Bay bounced right off of me. Meaningless game, all that.

I was fine with Rex saying he sucked, he's heading back to his fort and he'd come out fighting.

But then Rex has to come out and speak again, giving some insight and excuses into what happened last Sunday.

"And the situation was I felt like I was going to play about a half, and it was the last game, it was New Year's Eve -- there were so many other factors that brought my focus away from what is actually important, and that's something that I am never going to do again. It's another lesson."

That fact that it was New Year's Eve prevented you from focusing? Please, don't say these things out loud. It's really, bumming me out, man.

Not for nothing, Rex was slated to play into the 3rd quarter, but Lovie Smith explained afterward that he saw no point in sending him out there to stink up the joint in the 3rd quarter, too.

Repeatedly this season, we've seen so-called "Bad Rex" show up and throw the unconscionable interception. The worse-than-rookie interception, often for an opponent TD.

During every broadcast, you'll hear about "making adjustments" in all facets of the game. Making adjustments during a game is apparently out of the question for Rex and/or the staff. Once it's Rex's off-day or unfocused day, a couple more bad picks and a fumbled exchange with Center Olin Kreutz are in the offing.

I know the feeling. Some days at work, I get my ass kicked by about 10 AM and decide I'll go back to the drawing board and try again tomorrow. That's Rex's plan. Fix it next week. Next week we'll make it all better, nothing we can do today.

I'd like my QB to try harder than I do, please. I'm not setting the bar that high, believe me, gang.

What a house of cards this feels like. Rex has to be perfectly focused -- so it can't be a holiday or anything -- or else we can expect rookie mistakes. He's got to give himself a pep talk for the whole week so he remembers to be focused and be functional on Sunday.

It's not dissimilar to earlier in the year when Rex announced during the week that, by god, the quarterback running and picking up 5 yards once in a while is a good thing. I should really do that this week.

It was only 2 months in coming. Defenses have been playing with the knowledge that he refuses to run. Sure enough, he cracked off a nice 20-yard run against the Rams that week. Since then? Nothing. It was just that one week because Rex spent a week pontificating it, now it's off the map.

My buddy Freen (a real buddy, not a Bill Simmons buddy like H-Bug, Stench, K-Flab, or J-Dog who are just silly names he made up to make his story seem funnier) pointed out that the coaching staff had the same plan with the shotgun. Some writers pointed out that there's a formation called the shotgun that's used sometimes. Ron Turner implemented it that week for a couple plays, said "There ya go," and it hasn't been seen since.

I'm sure I'm being hard on Rex, but I'd prefer a QB who didn't have to think everything through for a couple days to have a chance at success. Where's the innate skill that would indicate there are better things to come? So we get just the basics then?

This is like going to see a band play and watching the guitar player have to stare at his fingers on the strings to be able to keep up. All right, I guess they won't be taking requests tonight or playing any notes different than what's on the album.

I get the feeling that if Rex learns how to change a tire this week, he may forget half of the playbook, as well as his closing promise for next week's game: "You're going to see a focused and intense quarterback."

Write that down, buddy. Focus on it and don't get distracted by shiny objects or dogs with puffy tails.