Again this is Chad's take on this past weekend's crushing of the Lions.
Rex is King.
I can't believe what I'm seeing the past two Sundays. The Chicago Bears have a really good quarterback. I don't even know where to begin.
Let me start by saying that I could write a whole column on Rex Grossman and his inspired play. But I won't. Do want to talk specifically about him but I'll wait til later.
I'm happy about this win. And it's always great to blow out a division rival. But let's look deeper at this game. (If you want a nuts and bolts run down of what happened here's a link: http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/gamecenter/live/NFL_20060917_DET@CHI and here's another: http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/gamecenter/playbyplay/NFL_20060917_DET@CHI )
While the offense seemed to steal the show really, it was the defense that made the difference. And while people like Tommie Harris and Wale looked great with 3.5 sacks between them, the whole squad dominated the Lions all day long. There is no stat for bone crushing hits but I really think that Roy Williams got under the skin of our boys on D today, cause every play it seemed that someone was getting crunched. Our pass rush was pretty good, but our coverage was better. The pass rush got good heat on Kitna many times but we definitely had a couple of coverage sacks. Big mouth Williams got off for a whopping 6 catches for 71 yards. Kitna proved why he is the journeyman that he is passing 30 times for 23 completes and 230 yards. Not too impressive from a team that was playing from behind. However how much can you blame him when he was admiring the beautiful Chicago sky so often (6 sacks). Of course lets not forget to mention Alex Brown's forced fumble that lead to our first score and Rex's first of 4 touchdowns.
But now the bad:
The running game. It was plain anemic. 89 yards today added to the 109 last week is not going to get it done against tougher opponents. Now, maybe the last two teams decided that they didn't fear Rex and the passing game. They figured they'd stack up the on the run and force Rex to carry the team. Well, newsflash, he can/did. Thomas Jones looked good on a couple of runs and Benson had a bruising first down run late where he ran over Boss Bailey. But over all the running game was poor.
Special teams didn't figure in this game as much as last but Robbie Gould nailed a 45 yard field goal and had 3 touchbacks. Now, I'm sure the wind was howling as a big rainstorm was headed to Chi-town but when was the last time the Bears had 3 touchbacks?
But lets get to the star of the game, King Rex (and for the Latin impared Rex means king). Rex was nearly flawless as he hit on 74% of his passes to 7 different receivers. Muhammed only had 4 catches but all were for first downs. (I really think that's important cause catching an 8 yard pass on third and 12 just pads the stats.) But once again Des Clark was the big receiving hero with 5 catches for 85 yards and a TD. Of course his wasn't as flashy as Bernard Berrian's 5 catches, one of which was a fully extended dive for a 41 yard TD. And kudos to John Gilmore for 2 TD catches today. I expect his season total to be no more than 3 by season's end.
But back to Rex. Rex's only almost miscue came late in the third quarter as Boss Bailey jumped a pass to Clark and picked it. Took it to the house for six but it was called back by an illegal use of hands call. That was the only scary part of the game as it would have cut the lead to 10 (24 - 7 at that point) but with the way the defense played I doubt the Lions could have scored 10 more points. Other than that Rex was gold. He kept hitting receivers in the numbers over and over again.
I have mentioned more than once that Rex is the next McMahon. This team just seems to respond to him. Keep it up Rex maybe we'll see you in Honolulu.