For those of you who’ve been completely out of touch for the last 36 hours, Grossman has been benched for this weekends game against Detroit in favor of Brian Griese.  I don’t know if I want to see Griese start over Orton, but I do think a change needed to be made.  The more I thought about this, there was one other thing that bothered me about Grossman so far this year.  Quarterbacks are going to make mistakes.  However, I like to see a little frustration out of a QB when this happens.  I want to see a QB who just threw a pick a little pissed at himself for making a mistake.  Looking at charts, seeing what he missed.  If it’s a receivers fault, get on the receiver.  Instead, Grossman just seemed to get depressed and sort of sulk on the sideline.  Going too far in the frustration direction can be bad, but sulking is just as bad if not worse.

 Some Comments on the lastest column:

colbear writes “Why does Coach Smith keep saying that we are a running team and then not pursue every option that he has? If nothing else he should keep rotating Benson and Peterson until he finds out who wants the ball. My opinion is that Benson has the better tools but not the heart to use them,so put in Peterson who will give 100% every run and give him a full 4 quarters to show us what he can do. Its obvious that Grossman will not get it done in the air so he better get the most out of his backs!”

 I don’t think the coaches have figured out what they have with Benson.  I think the QB position was a bigger issue, and it’s been addressed.  If Benson keeps fumbling the ball, I think a change will be made there as well.  However, Benson has looked good at times, so I don’t think we’re there yet.  Of course, Grossman has looked good at times (first half against KC, the 80+ yard drive against Dallas to briefly tie the game at 10), so that doesn’t mean everything, but I’m not expecting a move quite yet.  We’ll see how he plays against Detroit.

beargirl writes: “umm, you still have the Bears at 4-10. Are they so bad the league is going to ask them not to play the last 2 games? ”

Yea, I realized that when I was telling someone (my wife, I think) what I had wrote, and did the math in my head, and realized that was only 14 games.  I blame the 62 ounces of margaritas I had during the first half/dinner.  I’m going to leave it there just because I think it’s funny.  However, if the Bears are 4-10 heading into those last two games, that wouldn’t suprise me.

Oh - and beargirl - you wrote a few pieces for awhile during the summer and pre-season - please feel free to write some more.  I always enjoy reading other peoples stuff!!!

Here are the weekly team/player updates:

• Alex Brown is going to be potentially replaced by Mark Anderson for the starting DE spot.  He may be able to still start, if he takes Ogunyele’s place.
• There are talks about Kyle Orton replacing Griese as backup quarterback, since Orton is getting a bit more time with the second team.  Ron Turner maintains, however, that Griese’s status hasn’t changed.
• The NFL Hall of Fame Ceremony will miss Hall of Fame Bears coach Mike Ditka, as he is boycotting the ceremonies until the NFL takes action to improve disability payments for disabled players.

I have, to admit, I was very happy when Lance Briggs finally came to his senses and settled on an agreement with his team. I think the Bears franchise, and especially Jerry Angelo, have been especially gracious in his arrival to training camp, but I’m also glad that no one’s really saying anything to the media. I’d like for all of this to blow over quietly, and for it to disappear in the shadows of the Mike Vick scandal.

The Bears are currently all signed and ready to work in Bourbonnais at the moment. Their trade for Darwin Walker was especially good, in my humble opinion, and will definitely make up for Mr. Tank (although I thought it juuuuuuust a bit disrespectful that he’s already practicing in Johnson’s number 99 jersey). When I saw that, Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” started playing in my head……..

We’ll see how all of this works out in the next few weeks, but football season is upon us, and I couldn’t be more excited. Summertime drama has been squashed, and I think that these Bears are going to have another awesome season, and another stab at the Super Bowl.

A week ago, I was hopeful that the Bears would be even more successful than they had been last season, have another great record, and make another run for the Super Bowl title. I was happy that Tank was out of jail, that the newbies on the team were doing fairly well, practice and training was going well, and everyone seemed optimistic.

What a difference a week makes.

Even though the tests haven’t come back, the fact that he was released from the Bears this week was a hard blow to take. I mean, WHO does 25 in a 25 zone?? It seemed to me that police were picking on poor Tank and that upon a (more than likely) negative DUI test, Tank will find NFL work elsewhere, leaving our beloved football team to find a DT as good as he is.

Everything else seems rather calm in the Bears camp now, but this was definitely the straw that broke the Bears’ back. And although I believe that Johnson did some pretty dumb things off the field, they are going to miss him where it counts.