Arkush: There's still a lot for these Bears to play for

The Chicago Bears played their best game of the season Sunday, pounding the Houston Texans 36-7.

Let's not get too giddy, though. As good as it feels for all involved, the Texans are a bad football team on their best days and came to Chicago missing most of their best weapons on offense.

But if you're going to bury them for all the bad performances in the six-game losing streak the Bears snapped Sunday - and a large contingent of Bears fans already have buried general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy - you have to give them equal credit for the wins.

So what does the win over the Texans do to brighten the futures of the current Bears in Chicago? Most likely it does very little by itself.

But there are a few things that actually began with the embarrassment in Green Bay that could impact futures.

Since returning to the starting lineup vs. the Packers, Mitch Trubisky is now 76-of-113 passing for 776 yards and 7 touchdowns against 2 interceptions. That's a 100.0 passer rating to go along with 39 yards on 10 rush attempts.

In those same three games, David Montgomery has now rushed for 288 yards and 3 TDs on 39 carries, while adding 121 yards and a score on 13 catches.

Cole Kmet, Sam Mustipher and Alex Bars have shown themselves to be more than just capable NFL starters.

An offense that averaged 19.1 points a game in its first 10 games before putting Trubisky back at the helm has averaged 30.3 points since.

I know, I know, garbage time at Green Bay, bad defenses, yada, yada, yada ... but you don't get to inform opinions or finalize evaluations based on games that upset you and just throw out the ones that don't fit your narrative.

The Texans game has to be taken in full context, but it does count.

Asked after the game what's changed with this offense Montgomery said, "I think we're starting to buy in more, really believe. Believe.

"You gotta look each other in the eye and really understand that you gotta do it for the man next to you because at the end of the day, this is a crazy league and anything can happen, so our attitudes and mentality just was more of a believer mentality."

Defensive captain Danny Trevathan was questioned as to whether or not he and his teammates were listening to all the noise about Nagy being fired.

"We want to play for him all the time," Trevathan said. "We don't pay that outside noise any attention. We just know that we like the man that's in charge, ahead of us, our head coach. So when we go out there, we've got to make him look good.

"I feel like our defense is rolling, our offense is picking it up crazy. I knew it would happen, perfect timing, we just gotta keep it rolling one game at a time."

Actually, perfect timing would have been at Lambeau, but ask yourself this: What if the Bears go into Minnesota next week as underdogs and play like they did Sunday and get another win?

What if Trubisky, Montgomery and the offense continue to progress as they have the last few weeks?

Would you be as upset as you are with the Bears now at 6-7 had they started 3-3 as opposed to 5-1?

What if the Bears somehow finish at 8-8 or even 9-7?

Does anyone really believe you'll quit on the Bears if they don't start firing people?

I know that almost none of you that have made up your minds about Pace, Nagy and/or Trubisky, et al, are going to change them no matter what happens, but it doesn't matter.

Only George McCaskey does, and while I don't know what he's going to do at the end of the season, and I'm still not sure what I think he should do, if you think he's already sealed everyone's fate and his mind can't be changed, you're sadly mistaken.

The final chapters on Pace's, Nagy's, Trubisky's and all these other Bears' futures almost certainly have yet to be written, but they will be over the next three weeks.

A win next week could save a bunch of jobs while a loss to the Jaguars should get a lot of people fired.

There is still a lot left to play for.