Time to give Hester the ball, Grossman a chance

Neither Bears head coach Lovie Smith nor offensive coordinator Ron Turner have asked for advice on how to tune up a misfiring offense, but here are a few suggestions anyway.

• First, if you can't get the ball to Devin Hester by throwing it to him, then hand it to him. Hester is the most dangerous scoring threat in the NFL, but he has had 1 pass thrown to him in two weeks, a high strike just over the line of scrimmage from Rex Grossman that bounced off his hands.

Since Hester only knows part of the playbook, and opponents know there's a high-degree of probability that he is a primary receiver on those handful of offensive snaps, it will be difficult to get him the ball in space, where he excels.

So why not line him up in the backfield and pitch it to him, toss it to him, swing it to him, flip it to him -- just get it in his hands.

Even the Bears' overrated offensive line should be able to keep the defense out of the backfield long enough for Hester to secure the ball while moving forward with a chance to read the defense, like he does returning a punt or kickoff.

He can continue learning to play wide receiver. If you're serious about getting the ball to him, however, it's a lot easier to do it in the backfield.

And no one's suggesting that Hester bang it between the tackles in short-yardage situations. Use him in passing situations where he can catch short passes or take pitchouts and handoffs in the relative safety of the backfield and then let him challenge the perimeter.

• Brilliant idea No. 2: Stick with Grossman at quarterback -- for about two more games.

If Grossman doesn't play significantly better in the next two games, then it's time to give Brian Griese a chance because the Bears won't even get into the playoffs with the quarterback play they've had so far this season.

It's not time to give up on Grossman yet, but if he doesn't improve in a hurry, you can't sacrifice a shot at returning to the Super Bowl to accommodate a young player's growing pains, especially at quarterback.

It's not as if the Bears' backup is a washed-up journeyman barely hanging on to his job.

At 32, Griese is experienced, not ancient. He has started 72 NFL games in nine previous seasons, and his career passer rating of 84.5 is miles ahead of Grossman's current 55.1 -- and much better than last year's 73.9.

Griese threw 20 TD passes and just 12 interceptions and had an exceptional passer rating of 97.5 as recently as 2004 for a Tampa Bay team that went 5-6 with him starting and 0-5 without him.

Doesn't Lovie Smith owe it to his team to at least find out how it would play with Griese at quarterback?

And don't buy that garbage about Grossman's psyche being irreparably damaged by a benching should they need to go back to him at some point. If Grossman survived last season's crucible, spending a few games as a spectator won't destroy him.

And who knows? Griese might help the Bears get over the final hurdle.

• And just so the defense doesn't feel neglected, here's a tip for it: Keep using Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs to blitz; it seems to work pretty well.