Not all his fault, but still a total Wrecks

The Bears are the NFL franchise that brought you such football innovations as the T-formation.

Sunday night they outdid themselves by featuring the first offense completely manufactured and assembled in China.

We're talking a defective product here, folks. Expect a recall and rebate any moment now. Suspicions are that multiple consumers were hospitalized by boredom.

Soldier Field fans should have seen this one coming. Hours earlier the Packers scored 31 points against a Chargers team that held the Bears to 3 points two weeks ago.

For a change, this 34-10 loss to the Cowboys can't be attributed solely to quarterback Rex Grossman.

But we will anyway. Grossman was more Wrecks than Rex, more Bad Rex than Good Rex, more problem than solution.

The Bears' offense was ineffective enough again to make you think head coach Lovie Smith has to be thinking about replacing Grossman with Brian Griese.

"I'm going about my business," Grossman said, "and not worrying about things I don't control."

Logic never has applied when it comes to this issue. More likely, Smith will let Bears fans' boos go in one ear and out the other.

"Rex is our quarterback," Smith said. "He's going to take a lot of the blame. We all take a lot of the blame."

In other words, just as China has a billion people, the Bears' offense had at least that many co-conspirators on this beautiful autumn evening turned fall ugly.

The Bears needed points because four defensive starters -- Lance Briggs, Adewale Ogunleye, Nate Vasher and Tommie Harris -- left with injuries in the second half.

Instead the Bears' passing game fired blanks as Grossman misfired and receivers contributed drops.

In a way, the entire Bears organization can be charged with this offensive atrocity. You see, Grossman was matched against Tony Romo, a fellow fifth-year veteran.

The difference is Grossman was the Bears' first-round draft choice in 2003 and the Cowboys signed Romo as an undrafted free agent.

Grossman played little for three seasons because of injury. Romo didn't play at all because, well, he wasn't ready.

Judging by their draft status, however, Grossman should be better than Romo by now. Watching them on the same field contradicts that theory.

Much of Romo's advantage is due to a better set of receivers, a better offensive playbook and a better game plan on this night.

Still, it was difficult to ignore that Romo (100.8 quarterback rating) was better than Grossman (27.5) at avoiding a rush, seeing the field and hitting his target.

"He made plays tonight," Grossman said of Romo, "and that's the bottom line."

The bottomer line is Grossman didn't.

The culprit is either Grossman's deficiencies, the Bears' scouting of quarterbacks, the coaching staff's development of quarterbacks … or all of the above.

Grossman appears to be going backward. Romo looks like he is going forward with better ability, teammates and coaching.

If the Bears didn't draft Grossman and did sign Romo, would they be better off today?

That's a question with no answer, because we don't know what Romo would be like if Smith were his head coach, Ron Turner his offensive coordinator and somebody named Pep Hamilton his quarterback coach.

For whatever reason -- probably reasons -- Romo is better than Grossman, and consequently the Cowboys' offense is better than the Bears' offense.

Unless they're playing Chinese checkers, that is.

mimrem@dailyherald.com