Rex (The Wonder Dog) Grossman rushes for 22 yards against the St, Louis Rams on Monday night.

Football fans in Chicago are a little batty. Maybe it’s all that hot chocolate we drink at those frigid December home games. Or perhaps it’s the fact that our womenfolk are liable to be more rabid about supporting the team than their erstwhile mates, a season ticket package being a bigger turn on than a pocket rocket or even front row tickets to Blue Man Group.

So you will forgive me if some of us exhibit all the signs of schizophrenia when it comes to our beloveds. It isn’t enough that the Bears are 10-2 and NFC North Division Champs. We must annihilate the opponent, make him suffer, make him grovel and beg for mercy. And when our quarterback of the future underperforms in the present, appearing ordinary or worse, reminiscent of Cade McNown, the schizophrenia overwhelms our common sense and a hue and cry ensues to burn the transgressor at the stake, to pillory him, to make him suffer as he makes us suffer by humiliating him and placing the mark of Cain upon his forehead (or move him down on the depth chart whichever can be arranged first).

Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman has exactly 19 professional football games under his belt. He has shown flashes of brilliance throughout the year. He has also looked like a junior college transfer from Guadalajara. Young quarterbacks – even the good ones – will do this in spite of everything we tell them; don’t throw off your back foot, don’t try to force the ball between 3 defenders, don’t forget your blind side, and whatever you do, don’t let Jay Mariotti interview you.

It does little good. Given the speed and ferocity of the professional game, youngsters like Wonder Dog have to learn it all by themselves. Coaching only takes one so far. In the end, it is what is inside the player that determines whether or not they succeed at the level of the NFL.

With most of the Bears nation screaming to play Wonder Dog’s backup Brian Greise, Coach Lovie stuck with his young gun rather than play the old, wise head. And on Monday night, that decision paid off as Wonder Dog rose to the challenge and played a game closer to what he is capable of rather than what we’ve come to expect the last 7 weeks. Looking cool and confident, Rex checked off primary receivers, settling for what the defense gave him, stayed out of trouble, and most importantly, made no mistakes in leading the beloveds to a 42-27 victory over the St. Louis Rams.

He also showed flashes of that brilliant downfield passing that was so much a part of the passing game in September and October. That’s the rub, of course. Playing professional football in Chicago outdoors, in December, means that conditions will be a little different than they were inside the St. Louis Jones Dome. The frozen ball doesn’t spiral quite so perfectly. The icy wind whipping off the lake entices the ball to perform erotic dances on its way to the target as it dips and wobbles seductively before reaching its intended. And the bone chilling cold numbs the hands and fingers so that holding on to the ball becomes an exercise in willpower.

This is why Chicago hasn’t had a pro-bowl quarterback since Crazy Jim McMahon in 1985. The toll that the weather takes on a quarterback’s statistics from Halloween on precludes consideration for any kind of post season awards. Only genuine, 1st ballot Hall of Famers like Tom Brady or Bret Favre can lay claim to post season kudos playing for northern teams. Those men have learned to manage the biting cold, the swirling snow.

For Wonder Dog, his problems are beyond weather. They are in his head. A quarterback can be many things – arrogant, yappy, a cheerleader, even a father figure – but he can’t question his own ability. He can’t doubt his qualifications to lead the team. For a couple of weeks, the seeds of doubt were sown in Rex’s head both by the rabid, stupid, blowhard Chicago media and his own subpar performances. But last night in St. Louis, with the wolves howling at the door for his professional scalp, Wonder Dog responded to the challenge with a 13-23, 200 yard, 2 TD no interception performance.

Brian Greise, competent and experienced as he is, will not lead the Bears to football glory in Miami in January next year. The belief by some Chicago fans that Greise can carry them to the promised land is not based on any kind of intelligent analysis of the situation but rather the fear that the growing pains exhibited by Wonder Dog are indicative of how his career will unfold. One need only ask Indianapolis fans about Peyton Manning’s early years or Denver fans of John Elway’s painful maturation process. Both of those men had many games like Rex has had in the last two months. But they learned to cope with blitzes and the complex defenses NFL coordinators would throw at them. And I can guarantee you that they didn’t learn in 19 games.

To give up on Wonder Dog at this point is just not logical nor would it be wise. As he proved in the Giants game, Rex can stink up the joint for an entire half and then suddenly look like a hall of famer. Greise, competent and steady (and incapable of engineering a comeback of any kind) just doesn’t have that extra spark of talent and determination that Wonder Dog has already shown. For this reason, I hope that no matter how Rex looks the rest of the way that Coach Lovie will stand by him and allow the youngster to mature into the pro-bowl quarterback we all hope he can be.

As for the rest of the game last night, there was the Windy City Flyer Devon Hester streaking for two kickoff returns which means he will likely not get more than a handful of chances the rest of his career to return anything. Anyone that dangerous returning the ball – Dante Hall of Kansas City comes to mind – ends up having the ball kicked away from him permanently. Many teams will prefer to give the Bears excellent field position rather than trying to pin them deep on kickoffs. On punts, he may get luckier but unless the Bears can consistently make the other team pay by scoring when given a short field, even punters will settle for kicking the ball high and short in order to give the coverage team ample time to surround the young phenom. Next year, look for Hester to move to the offense where he would make a great slot receiver.

And the vaunted Bears defense? No longer the best. No longer scary – except to Bears fans who realize that the early season dominance of the defense is history thanks to three key injuries to pro-bowlers Mike Brown, Tommie Harris, and Nathan Vashar. Of the three, only Vashar is expected to return. But the loss of Brown several weeks ago made the Bears run defense extremely ordinary (Brown was responsible for defensive signal calling, a job he was considered the best in the league at) and the most recent blow of losing Harris means that the strength of the defense – the defensive line – is now a rather ordinary bunch.

Can the Bears go to the Superbowl based on the strength of their special teams and offense? If their run game stays solid, I see no reason why not. As long as Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson can run effectively, the offense will probably score enough points to overcome any defensive deficits.

But take it to the bank; Coach Lovie will probably keep Wonder Dog as his starter from here on out no matter what he does. We will live or die with Grossman at quarterback. If that makes you nervous, may I suggest some Zantax? Or maybe you should stop reading the sports pages and listening to sports talk radio.

I have.