QB doesn’t think he deserves to be benched ASHBURN — Rex Grossman knows the numbers, but he defended himself anyway. When he considered his first five games this season, he came to a different conclusion than coach Mike Shanahan, who benched him.
That’s why he wasn’t happy to receive the news from Shanahan on Tuesday.
“I was frustrated,” Grossman said. “Not completely surprised but disappointed that I wasn’t able to come back off that game. … I thought I played well the first four games, but you can’t have games like that against the Eagles.”
Grossman threw an NFL-high nine interceptions in five starts compared to only six touchdowns. His passer rating in the opener vs. the New York Giants was 110.5, but in the next four games his rating went like this: 74.9, 77.5, 48.5, 23.7. Passer rating isn’t always the best way to measure a quarterback, but it does provide a barometer.
“The frustrating part of it is I do think they were good performances,” Grossman said. “The frustrating part of it is they should have been great. But you go out there to win. You don’t try to put up numbers. It’s obvious when you do have a great rating and you put up a lot of points. There’s no doubt you played great. Anytime you don’t produce enough points it leaves room for judgment.
“I had an opportunity to make it clear as day, and it wasn’t. But for the first four games I played well.”
Grossman has turned the ball over 18 times in his eight starts with Washington, following a career-long pattern. He has thrown 49 interceptions in 46 starts.
Even in college at Florida he threw interceptions (36), but he also threw 77 touchdown passes.
“To keep that position as quarterback, you have to eliminate those mistakes,” Shanahan said. “There will always be mistakes made in a game, but you can’t constantly turn the football over, and if you do, you’ll lose your opportunity to lead the football team.”
Grossman said there’s one way to change that habit.
“Just have a little more conservative approach to the fact that: A, turnovers are bad,” he said. “They’re emotional mistakes that create emotion in the stands, creates an odd emotion everywhere. They have an odd way of feeling worse for your momentum and feeling worse.”
