2007 Preseason Game 2 - Bears @ Colts

Ok...I've got a lot of comments about the performance last night, but not what many of you may think they would be.

I am not going to be able to go totally into it because I have a meeting in like 5 minutes, but I thought I would start trying to get some answers out of you people on this topic because I want to know if I am crazy for still having faith in Rex.

So heres what I am getting from media de mainstream. "Yeah, it is the pre-season so the tendency is to write off the poor performance from Rex...but basically we (sports critics) are not going to" ...because it is exactly the same as last year...a mirrored performance if you will.

Sports writers are going wild with this whole "no display of improvement" thing. They believe this blow up last night signifies what the concern with Rex has been from the start...consistency is not coming...not soon...not ever. And, from what are they basing their decision (or better yet...OPINION)?

Oh, well...of course the most reliable source known to man!! not a dictionary or an encyclopedia...no no - - a quarter and a half of a PRE-SEASON game against the team that WON THE MOTHER FUCKING SUPERBOWL!!

Jesus people! talk about reacting to nothing. By the way, that was sarcasm in case you couldnt tell because of the typing and lack of tone and whatnot.

This is ridiculous.

It is apparent to me that the first crap snap incident was not solely Rex's fault. Sure, he should be better with that pocket presence...but sometimes your just going to miss a guy that was released onto you from behind. My feeling is that, much of what followed, was a downward spiral from that play. I think he started to have flashbacks of the superbowl...those mistakes have probably haunted him and traumatized him to blue and white jerseys.

It was the good old domino effect. I'm not saying that it wasnt a deplorable showing, or that those mistakes (specifically the quantity of them) are forgivable...I am just saying that there are some viable explanations to Rex's qb shutdown...the one mentioned above not being the only one.

The second one is that as basic as a successful snap may be to the role of the qb, they have probably been working Rex pretty hard on everything EXCEPT for the very very basics (focusing on his footwork, throwing consistency). When you are working on other aspects of your game, your tendency may be to forget what you should already know as instinct or what should occur inherently.

Your teachers (coaches) incorrectly assume that, what you have already been taught, will be retained. Unfortunately, for most of us humans, thats not what happens.

I learned the quadratic formula...could I do an equation right now without re-learning it a little? No, it would be all luck if I came up with the right answer.

Basically, Rex showed me last night that he is a bad student, not a bad quarterback. At his age...I dont care that he is a bad student during the pre-season. The coaches can straighten out everything that happened yesterday, within seconds...its probably already done.

That's not to say that it wont happen again, but the coaches are now at least aware that Rex does not have a long term memory and these very basic quarterback duties need to continually be drilled into his brain with repetition until they are habit.

From my perspective, last nights biggest mistake was the coaches decision to focus so closely on only those issues that were most evident from last year, while letting other skills that needed polishing, fall to the wayside or sit on the backburner.

The fact is, and always has been, that Rex is, in terms of playing time, still a very young quarterback. I think people in general, AND EVEN THE COACHES, have trouble seeing him that way.

Young quarterbacks will make mistakes like those made in yesterdays game... I think they showed some stats of Rex's "first starting season" vs. Mannings. AMAZING...they are almost exactly the same. Does that mean that Rex will, in time, be as good as Manning is today? No, probably not...but it shows you that, for christ sake, maybe our expectations are a little high at the moment.

He's a young quarterback...hes going to make about as many mistakes as he does great plays and fantastic flashes of talent...until he learns to limit one and facilitate the other.

I'm sorry, I'm still drinking his kool aid. I think he is still learning, but he will be good enough this year to get us where we need to go....It probably wont be pretty, but I think it is obvious that as a team...we are pretty damn good.

Yeah, we have some question marks...but I think that when those question marks start effecting the team negatively, the talent of the rest of the team balances it. What we need to hope for, is those question marks turning into exclamation points and being the icing on the cake rather than the missing ingredient.

When Rex performs better than average, it makes us unstoppable. It is actually quite amazing...Rex has to absolutely suck for most teams to even have a chance to hang with da BEARS. As long as Rex is primarily playing for the bears, and not the opposing team by giving it to them on our own 5, I think we are in the money.

Whether or not the odds are better that Rex will be good Rex more often than bad?...If I were a betting man, I would tend to be an optimist on that.

Is my faith misplaced? Am I being too much of a Bear fan and not enough of a realist?

I'm sincerely curious. I dont know if I am pulling the veil over my own head with Rex anymore. I know what I believe, I just wonder sometimes if I am letting my hope turn into my idea of the facts.

Shoot straight with me on this one...I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

DLP