What to be learned from this? Let's see

One city, one team, one sorry, smelly, snowy Sunday in Soldier Field for the Bears.

“Just one game,” safety Chris Harris said.

Yes. Yes, it was. Checking the records, the Bears started the day 9-3 and ended it 9-4.

Yet sometimes “1” really does seem like the loneliest number, like after the Patriots' whip up on you 36-7.

But not for Bears coach Lovie Smith, who noted, “We went into this game in first place in our division and we still are.”

Actually, the Bears are better off in the NFC North now than then because another week was subtracted from the calendar.

Lovie's lovelies are a game up on Green Bay with three to play. Not only that but the Packers have to go to New England next week after quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion in an upset loss at Detroit.

So why doesn't that seem like much of a consolation? Because the Bears were so overwhelmed by New England that their five-game winning streak seems centuries ago.

The Bears trailed the Pats 33-0 at halftime. After that about all they could do was look down at the field and wonder how it can be that no two snowflakes are the same.

“We'll learn a lot from this situation,” Smith said.

Well, we can already tell him what we learned from such a one-sided snowball fight:

•First of all, the Bears don't need a domed stadium for the roof to cave in on them.

•Second of all, Bears weather ain't anymore even if it ever was.

•Most of all, the Bears aren't the Patriots, Smith isn't Bill Belichick, and Jay Cutler isn't Tom Brady.

“That's why he's the best in the league right now, the way he commands the offense,” Cutler said of Brady. “It's tough to watch when you're going against him because he's so good.”

If it was tough for Cutler, it was tougher for fans who paid cold cash to sit on icy seats theirs and Soldier Field's.

•The Patriots didn't pour it on in the second half because they might meet the Bears in the Super Bowl, or more likely because they became bored.

•If the final 30 minutes had to be played, Smith shouldn't have sent Cutler, Julius Peppers, Brian Urlacher and his other best players onto the field unless he wanted to punish them.

Yet he did and explained, “We wanted to get a little momentum going into our next football game.”

If baseball momentum is the next day's pitcher, football momentum is moving on from the Patriots to the Vikings.

•Many Bears players didn't wear shirt sleeves but cheap shot alert maybe they should have worn masks.

•The home team consisted of solar bears searching for warmth while the visitors consisted of polar bears searching for dinner.

•Cutler's body language is especially profane on days when his team competes with the weather for the title of more miserable.

•The Bears' third home loss of the season means they have forgotten the meaning of, “Not in our house!”

•The Patriots' 35-5 record in December since Brady became quarterback in 2001 means they know the meaning of, “Not in our month!”

•Days like this are when the warm glow of the Honey Bears is missed the most.

•Finally, we learned one more thing on this one sorry, smelly, snowy Sunday afternoon in Soldier Field:

The Bears aren't ready for the Super Bowl or the Iditarod.