Bears not out of woods yet

So 1-7 Dallas walks into New York and stomps the 6-2 Giants, after Dallas lost by 38 a week ago and New York won by 34.

It's official: Pete Rozelle's dream has finally come true.

The entire NFL stinks of mediocrity and there's at least as much parody as parity.

And the Bears are right there with the rest of the flawed teams, bad most of the time and occasionally decent.

Except on Sunday, when the Bears were very good.

In theory, that puts them in a class with the so-called class of the NFC, with the rest of the disfigured.

It remains to been seen, however, if the Bears can protect Jay Cutler against the likes of the Eagles, Giants, Saints, Falcons and Packers when it matters most in the postseason.

On Sunday, they did it against Minnesota, but Cutler's proven since the Giants game that he's not going to stand in and get hit for no reason.

He's proven that the beating he's taken now affects everything about his game, from his mechanics to his emotions.

And he displayed Sunday except for one classic Cutler giveaway in the end zone that given time and a reasonable game plan that he can execute with the best of them.

But no team can win with a wretched offensive line, which is why the Bears weren't considered even a decent team until Sunday, when their line played very well both in the run game and in pass protection.

Now the question one must ask is, how much value can you place on that one game? Did the offensive line play well or did the Vikings merely fail to show up? Can that line go from terrible to good overnight?

It's a fair question, considering all that's occurring with Minnesota these days. The timing may have just been perfect for the Bears to run into the Vikes when they didn't seem to care at all.

The good news is the Bears' string of good fortune continues Thursday when they face a good Miami team that's been ravaged by injuries.

Luck is a fabulous thing and any NFL team must have it to get anywhere, but luck will only take you so far.

On Sunday, they actually appeared to know what they were doing in all phases of the game.

It helped that Devin Hester was back on kicks, and if they can keep him there and keep him healthy, he could take the Bears a long way.

It's worth noting that on an innocuous pass play Sunday near the end of the third quarter, Hester was caught from the side by 275-pound defensive end Ray Edwards and squashed like a bug.

Hester fell on his left shoulder and didn't touch the ball the rest of the game.

That's just one risk to having him on offense, where he can't always see the defender, as opposed to returns when he can at least see them all, if not avoid them all.

But if Hester can do his thing, and if the Bears can protect Cutler, and if Mike Martz isn't insane, and if Cutler doesn't turn the ball over, and if and if and if.

And if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, I'd weigh 400 pounds because I really like candy and nuts.

There's probably a point here somewhere in our future and I guess it's this: Any mediocre team can beat any other mediocre team on any given Sunday, Monday, Thursday or Saturday.

So while the Bears are crowing like Super Bowl champs after the Vikings win, their arrogance isn't merited quite yet.

They've played precisely one good football game in 2010.

They're going to need a few more of those before they can order the rings.

brozner@dailyherald.com