Aug 6th 2008 10:35AM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: Bears, NFC North
These are the days on the Chicago Bears offense. If it’s not a coin-toss deciding the starting QB on day 1 of training camp, it’s joking that Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton are going to play paper, rock, scissors to decide the starting QB.
Well, now it appears that Lovie Smith is going with a home-road platoon. Orton will start the first pre-season game, tomorrow at home vs. KC, while Grossman will start the following pre-season game — a road game. Lovie claims there is no rhyme or reason to this decision:
“No real reason,” Smith said. ”My reason. You had to pick one, I picked one. That’s why there is a plan. Both of the guys know exactly when they are going to play.
”There’s nothing [to read into] it, not because one guy played a little bit better than the other. This is how we’re going to start it.”
Chicago Sun-Times beat reporter Brad Biggs had a different spin on the issue:
If the decision had anything to do with the cool reception Grossman received Friday during a practice at Soldier Field, the team never would say. It makes sense to go in this order because a rocky performance by Grossman could throw off the whole competition. Whether they want to admit it or not, the Bears are conscious of how their decisions are received publicly.Continue Reading
