Rozner: In this NFL, Bears catching up fast

When the NFL season began, the Bears looked like a 5-11 team coming off a 5-11 season.

But since starting 0-3 and losing those games by a combined total of 59 points, the Bears are 5-3 and the three defeats are by a combined 8 points.

Just that quickly, the Bears look like a team that can sneak into the playoff hunt this year - though the odds are against them because of a terrible conference record - and will be favored to reach the postseason a year from now.

Any thoughts of an NFC title appeared to be four or five years away when training camp began, and now with some smart off-season acquisitions, you wonder if the Bears won't be a sleeper pick as soon as next season.

Too optimistic? Probably, but that misses the point.

The Bears have come a very long way in a very short time.

So what's changed?

Well, with all due respect to John Fox and his staff, this is more about the NFL than it is the Bears. Far beyond parity, the NFL has simply run short of talent and there are very few teams you could classify as better than the rest.

There's maybe three or four teams that rise above the pack, and the rest are all the same.

The Bears are in that group. They can win any game left on their schedule, and they can lose any game left on their schedule.

Nearly every game played by every team is a tossup.

"Every week it's tough. Every game is tough," said Bears center Hroniss Grasu. "It's about the red zone for us now. We have to figure out how to get touchdowns in the red zone, and that's going to make us tough to beat."

The Bears have done it on offense despite having no receiving corps to speak of, with Jay Cutler throwing to players who hardly look like they belong in the NFL.

They've done it with an offensive line that would need improvement to be considered mediocre, though that's also normal in this NFL.

And they've done it because offensive coordinator Adam Gase has found way to bring out the best in Cutler, something few thought was possible after the misery of the last few years.

You can't win NFL games without a competent QB, so that makes Gase a miracle worker, but you can't overlook the job done by defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who has worked some magic of his own.

The Bears have given up an average of 17 points over the last five games and that might be even more impressive than the offensive turnaround considering the staggering lack of talent on defense.

On Thursday night in Green Bay, the visitors held the Packers to 13 points with names like Bruce Gaston, Eddie Goldman, Jarvis Jenkins, Pernell McPhee, Sam Acho, Shea McClellin, Christian Jones, Kyle Fuller, Tracy Porter, Chris Prosinski and Adrian Amos.

You're kidding, right? How many of those guys had Aaron Rodgers even heard of three months ago?

It just makes you wonder what Fangio could do if the Bears add an impact player on the line, at linebacker and in the secondary, because he's getting it done with a whole lot of nothing right now.

"It's amazing," Cutler said. "A lot of new faces over there (on defense). You look across that side and there's not a lot of guys from last year.

"For them to gel that quickly, learn a new system, it says a lot about our coaches and how good of a job they're doing."

The shame of it is the Bears could lose both Gase and Fangio to head coaching jobs in the off-season, and the hope is that Fox has continuity in place, or can recruit a couple of coaches as good as Gase and Fangio.

You look around a dreadful league and you can see how a few good additions on both sides of the ball could make the Bears instant contenders.

That's a notion that was ridiculous in September, but it speaks to the level of coaching that Gase and Fangio have brought to a lost a team, and it speaks to the willingness of GM Ryan Pace to listen to his coaches when they tell him to rid the roster of dead weight and find serviceable players.

It's been a stunning turnaround that no one saw coming, but in a league where bad can beat good on any given Sunday, it's also a glimpse into what the Bears can be if they can hit on a couple drafts picks and free agent signings.

If they do that, a long-term rebuild could be much shorter and sweeter than imagined.

You can thank the NFL for that, too.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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