Cut Down Becomes Eliminate

From the Daily Herald: "Although he shows Pro Bowl skills at times, Grossman can't seem to eliminate the mistakes."

The most insidious thing about the hole Grossman redug for himself after last game is that with the rekindled fear of Grossman collapses, people are going to start saying that Grossman needs to eliminate his mistakes to take the team to the Super Bowl. That's not true at all. Eliminating his mistakes would be a superhuman accomplishment. No quarterback could ever eliminate his mistakes. All Grossman needs to do is cut down on his mistakes. Grossman went 13/20 for 211 yards with 2 TDs and 1 interception. Yes, he had a fumbled snap, but there was lots of silly fumbles because the field was very wet. Going into the game everyone knew to expect some fumbles. But, of course, because of Grossman's last game, his fumbles could not be seen in the context of this game.

Basically, Grossman came out and did exactly what everyone should have said he needed to do. He came out and made far more good plays than bad, and didn't make any completely ridiculous mistakes. But his bar has been set at perfection by all the Grossman bashers. He will not be talked about as having a legitimately good game until he plays a perfect game. Which won't happen.

Maybe, hopefully, if he manages to have a season more consistent with this game and the first preseason game and the rest of camp, rather than the game against the Colts, by the end of the season there will be less pointless Grossman bashing. Hopefully that will be both because Grossman has really played better and because people have recalibrated their perceptions to more closely align with reality.