Bears’ Grossman makes right call

There have been three different Rex Grossmans at quarterback this year for the mighty Chicago Bears, and the third one, who beat up on the St. Louis Rams Monday night, 42-27, was good enough to lead the Bears deep into the winter season. Some of the earlier models weren’t.

Grossman’s 2006 travails, following his brilliant five-game (5-0) start, have been thought of by sports fans as causeless mystery. In fact, the changes this year in Grossman, who in his natural incarnation is an aggressive, let-it-all-hang-out, down-the-field passer, have been the result of in-season re-tooling by his leaders.

That isn’t the best time to re-tool. But after Grossman got off a flying start this year, his position coach, Wade Wilson, decided to make some fundamental changes in his footwork. Thereupon, preoccupied with his feet, Grossman lost all feel for the game. Interceptions began to come in bunches. And criticism of him mounted.

Bears Coach Lovie Smith, showing admirable patience through Grossman’s two-month nightmare, was rewarded the night his quarterback re-emerged against the Rams. On the evidence of that game, Grossman has adjusted to his coaches’ counseling, and the Bears’ offense should again be formidable.

Now Smith needs to turn his attention to his fading defense, which gave up four long-drive touchdowns to St. Louis. He will remember that it was the collapse of the Bears’ defensive unit against Carolina that ended his season last January.

Drew Brees for All-Pro

When Drew Brees was drummed out of San Diego a few months ago by a coach, Marty Schottenheimer, who didn’t have much use for him, few sports fans expected him to instantly surface elsewhere as pro football’s probable All-Pro quarterback and most valuable player.

As the leader of the New Orleans Saints, Brees, one of the game’s great long passers, has distributed eight throws for touchdowns in his last two games, few of them short gimmes. So doing, he’s lifted the Saints to 9-4 in the NFC South, where, with a cakewalk home game Sunday against Washington, they’ve become one of the top two teams in the conference.

Improving steadily, Brees has had a big year though both of New Orleans’ wide receivers have been recently hurt -- a turn of events that might have knocked him out if running back Reggie Bush hadn’t been there to throw to.

Brees and Bush, the gifted rookie from USC, have been carrying the Saints.

The play of the week was Bush’s 61-yard back-and-forth touchdown run with a Brees pass that began when he caught the ball on the line of scrimmage. That run could be considered a career highlight if it weren’t so typical of his performances at USC and, now, New Orleans.

Brees-Payton express is rolling along

At quarterback so far this season, there has been a void on the All-Pro team. Tom Brady is having an erratic year. Peyton Manning, who might have been an MVP choice when the Colts were 9-0, has sunk with the fortunes of his team. Ben Roethlisberger has never recovered from his motorcycle wreck, or so it seems from the way he’s played. Grossman’s drive for MVP was derailed by the midseason overcoaching he got. At Cincinnati, Carson Palmer has been performing with All-Pro distinction, but the Bengals wandered at midseason, and will have to finish strong to support his bid.

The picture changes only in Louisiana, where Brees is driving the Saints to new heights under a new coach, Sean Payton, a bright import from Eastern Illinois and the Ottawa Rough Riders.

On their way up, neither Brees nor Payton was famously received elsewhere. At Dallas, where Payton was a producer, the credit went to others. At San Diego, the Chargers let Brees go.

Quite probably, Brees has been downgraded because of his stature. An approximate 6-footer, he is undersized by three to five inches, in the view of most evaluators. It’s a fact, however, that those people tend to judge tangibles first while downgrading the intangibles. The reverse is very often more helpful.

Ironically, Brees’ chief competition for MVP is San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson. Not long ago, Schottenheimer had them both in one backfield and chose to let Brees go. It’s a decision he may rue on Super Sunday.