At least this Bears loss didn't hurt

You probably think there's just no good news after yet another Bears defeat Sunday.

But that's where you're wrong.

There is a positive.

It's the Rams.

The Bears get 1-10 St. Louis at home next week, which means there is hope for an end to their four-game losing streak.

How's that for finding a silver lining in an otherwise pitch-black sky?

OK, it's a reach, since a victory won't mean a flippin' thing, and there's certainly no guarantee they can handle the hapless Rams.

And if you're forced to pay for tickets, you may not look at the Soldier Field matchup as anything resembling a positive, but grasping for straws isn't what you'd call easy work in 2009.

After all, the only victory in the seven games since the bye week is an ugly, heartless, effortless win over a terrible Cleveland team, a game so poorly played that it felt a lot like a loss.

In this case, at least the Bears arrived in Minnesota and found the stadium, so there's that.

Tommie Harris had his biggest hit of the year when he knocked teammate Charles Tillman out of the game with an elbow to the head.

And here you thought he couldn't hit anyone that hard anymore.

Let's see, Jay Cutler wasn't as bad as he has been lately, so that's something if you're looking to hang your hat and can't find anything short of these moments on which to put it.

Cutler didn't lose this game. Not that he was good, but he wasn't terrible, and that's an improvement.

He tossed a really bad interception by underthrowing Johnny Knox in the end zone, something we were promised would never happen again once Cutler arrived in Chicago.

But another pick wasn't his fault, and he also hit Knox in stride for a TD, something he failed to do the week before.

So that's a step up, right?

On the other hand, the defense could have stayed in Chicago and been just as effective against Brett Favre and the Minnesota offense.

Not really any way to put a happy face on that.

The only reason they lost by a mere 26 points was because Favre ran out of clock.

This is the same Favre, by the way, who was considered a joke by many of the so-called experts heading into this season, and all he has done at age 40 is take a team needing only a quarterback to challenge for the Super Bowl and put the Vikings (10-1) in a position to challenge for the Super Bowl.

The Bears (4-7) were determined to stop Adrian Peterson on Sunday, and they did a pretty fair job of that, but Favre chewed them up and spit them out, throwing for 392 yards and 3 TDs and generally had his way with the Chicago defense anywhere and any way he wanted.

Minnesota piled up 537 yards in total offense, more than any team has collected against the Bears since they beat the Rams in Los Angeles in 1982, a span of 428 games.

The worst number might have been time of possession, which favored Minnesota 41 minutes to 19, which probably is not the best way for the Bears to try to win a game.

But since the Bears couldn't run it - go figure - and the defense couldn't stop Favre, it made it a little tough to control the clock.

In fact, the second half saw the Bears fail to get a first down. They ran 13 plays, if you include a penalty, resulting in minus-3 yards of offense.

Total first downs were 31-8 and total plays were 83-38.

On the bright side, the offense shouldn't be at all tired when they face St. Louis on Sunday.

So, you see, there's plenty of good news here, and if that weren't enough, there's this:

Getting pounded by the Vikes wasn't at all frustrating, disheartening or difficult to accept, and it didn't end with a last-minute interception for a change.

And when they have no chance, and you know that going in, it doesn't even feel bad.

It's just plain bad.