Where has this Bears team been all season?

Winning is one thing.

And the Bears have done plenty of that this season.

But looking like a legitimate football team is quite another.

And that's something the Bears hadn't done even once this season.

At least, not until Sunday they hadn't.

Despite the best efforts of Bears apologists to suggest the team was worthy of its record, there was ample reason to wonder if the Bears really deserved to be 5-3 entering Sunday's game against the Vikings.

If you had two eyes and glasses that weren't obstructed by roses, there was plenty of evidence to suggest the Bears were much more lucky than good through the first eight games.

But there was no debating Sunday who the better team was at Soldier Field, and no questioning the legitimacy of the victory.

The Bears (6-3) took apart the Vikings (3-6) on offense, on defense and especially on special teams and pounded Minnesota to the tune of a 27-13 beating, which wasn't as close as the score might indicate.

“We knew we had to have this game,” said linebacker Lance Briggs, who had 5 tackles, a stuff, a pass defended and an interception. “This was huge for us and we came up huge today. We just wanted a victory.”

Sure, the Bears would have been happy enough with just a victory, but they accomplished quite a bit more than that.

For the first time this year, they established the run while protecting Jay Cutler.

Their defense stopped the run, played very physical and protected a lead.

The special teams were spectacular, mostly because Lovie Smith finally finally allowed Devin Hester to return kicks again.

And they ended, for all intents and purposes, the career of Brett Favre, one of the top QBs in NFL history, and a man who has tormented the Bears for nearly two decades.

As Sundays go, not a bad one for the Bears.

“This was so big for us on so many levels,” said Israel Idonije, whose tipped pass at the start of third led to a pick and 3 points for the Bears. “You have to win these division games to get anywhere. You don't want to wonder later how you let them get away.”

Chicago has spent the last couple of years wondering how the Bears could possibly be stupid enough to take the best weapon in football Hester as a returner and turn him into a bad wide receiver, and in the process hurt the football team.

But he returned to all manner of returns Sunday and dominated the game with 147 yards on special teams, giving the Bears field position every time he touched the ball.

“I just like getting the ball in my hands,” Hester said. “I feel like when I have the ball I can help my team with the talent God gave me, and kickoffs are just one more way for me to have the ball.”

Hester played a serious role in the Bears looking like a serious contender Sunday, something they only talked about through the first half of the season.

The Bears can pretend all they want that the team we saw Sunday had been there all season, but few are delusional enough to believe it. The Bears have been mostly bad, really lucky and sometimes decent.

Nevertheless, on Sunday they destroyed a very talented football team, albeit one that doesn't seem to care enough to show up and play the rest of this season.

If there was any doubt about whether the Vikes had quit on head coach Brad Childress, they left no doubt when they walked off the field Sunday.

The Vikings are finished and so is Favre, who spent several minutes hugging Bears players like Briggs and Brian Urlacher, taking in the sights and sounds of Chicago one last time.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for those guys,” Favre said. “I've had a pretty good record here, but it's been a real honor to play against them. We've had some battles, that's for sure.”

Somehow fitting, and to the delight of Bears fans everywhere, Favre's final throw ever in Chicago was an interception, as Visanthe Shiancoe slipped and the ball landed softy in the hands of Chris Harris.

But the Vikings' loss is Chicago's gain, and all Bears fans are concerned about now is whether the Bears can post another effort like this Thursday night in Miami against a Dolphins team that may be down to its third-string quarterback.

Miami (5-4) knocked off a good Tennessee team Sunday and still has dreams of a playoff berth.

That won't matter a lick if the Bears squad that showed up Sunday at Soldier Field takes the field again later this week in Florida. That's how good they were against the Vikes.

Still, anyone skeptical after seeing it only once has no reason to apologize for wondering if it can happen again or why the team had been so bad up until Game 9.

There are miles left to travel and much left to prove.

One game, after all, hardly makes a Super Bowl season.