Rex Grossman knows the numbers. But he defended himself anyway and 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 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, to only six touchdowns. His passer rating in the opener vs. the New York Giants was 110.5, but in the next four games they went like this: 74.9; 77.5; 48.5; 23.7. Those aren’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 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 and I could show you to prove it but it doesn’t matter. At this point it is what it is. I wasn’t proud of the Cowboys game as a whole but the other ones I played well.”
Grossman said, in general, the one thing that links his 49 career interceptions (in 46 games) is mindset. And if he had to change anything, that’s what it would be. But even in college he threw interceptions (33), but he also threw 77 touchdown passes.
“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. Like the first interception [vs. Philadelphia]. They should have the ball on the 3-yard line and it was third and 16. It was better than a punt but it didn’t feel like a punt.”
As for his four-interception game vs. Philadelphia, he said, “Anytime you watch tape it’s funny how things aren’t always as bad as they seem and they’re never as good as they seem. But definitely an unacceptable performance.”
Grossman clearly appeared disappointed. But he said he won’t let it affect his preparation.
“I’m a professional,” he said. “I’ll go about my business the same way. I know this offense. If I do get back in there I’m going to feel real good about it. I’ll try to build on the things I did well. Having success and winning games will propel my confidence if I do get back in there. Obviously there’s things I need to clean up but for the most part I’ll be in a good frame of mind.”
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