Olson: Win means very little

St. Louis Rams quarterback Trent Green, bottom, is sacked for an 8-yard loss by Chicago Bears defensive end Alex Brown on Sunday. (AP)

By Eric Olson, eolson@nwherald.com

As bad as the Bears looked at Green Bay last week, on Sunday we saw how much worse it could get.

The Rams were so bad, they made the Bears look like the team that went to Super Bowl XLI. Against the worst team west of Detroit, the Bears rediscovered their formula for winning: Once again they had a powerful ground game, a defense that created turnovers just as their opponent appeared ready to score, and a dangerous kick returner on special teams (not Devin Hester, but Danieal Manning.)

If not for a Jason McKie fumble in the red zone in the fourth quarter, the Bears would have won by more than the 27-3 final score.

But all this game proved was that the Bears (6-5) could beat one of the league's lousiest teams. Big deal.

To win back the respect that they lost after the drubbing they took at Green Bay, the Bears have got to beat someone better than a hapless 2-9 Rams squad. The Bears can talk all they want about a six-game season or a five-game season, but in reality, it's a one-game season.

If the Bears come up with the same kind of win - heck, any kind of win - in the game next Sunday night against Minnesota in Mike Ditka's beloved "Rollerdome," then we'll talk. Lose, and forget it.

Any sensible observer of Sunday's game would conclude that the Bears' win Sunday said little about their ability to win the NFC North and earn the right to lose a home playoff game against a wild card team.

It's not a knock against the Bears, who had a dominating win in which the defense notched its most sacks of the season (five) and interceptions (four), and running back Matt Forte had a career day running the football (132 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.) But consider just how poorly St. Louis played in this game at the library-quiet Edward Jones Dome.

They were penalized 11 times for 85 yards, including in some key situations. Their cornerbacks dropped at least a couple of chances at interceptions, including one Kyle Orton pass that hit St. Louis cornerback Fakir Brown right in the numbers deep in Bears territory. Their kicker missed a 40-yard field goal. Their offensive line couldn't block anybody, and they failed to make routine catches in critical situations, such as on a fake punt play that had caught the Bears off-guard early in the second quarter.

The Rams' starting quarterback, Marc Bulger, was knocked out of the game in the first quarter after a sack by the Bears' Adewale Ogunleye, one of five the Bears had on the day. The backup QB, 38-year-old Trent Green, played like you'd expect a 38-year-old backup to play. But even he was able to exploit holes in the Bears pass defense at times.

Yes, there were a lot of positives about the Bears play on Sunday. Although their pass coverage still was exploited at times, it was minimized because the Bears were able to pressure and sack the quarterback. Adewale Ogunleye's first sack knocked out Bulger. Two of the Bears' interceptions were the result of linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs tipping passes to each other.

But the win raised as many questions as it answered after the Bears' play the past couple of weeks. Have defensive coordinator Bob Babich and head coach Lovie Smith figured out how to get to the opposing quarterback on defense, or are the Rams just that bad? Can Forte and the Bears running game pick up the slack while Orton remains slowed with an ankle sprain, or are the Rams just that bad? Is Danieal Manning the answer on kickoff returns, or are the Rams just that bad?

It's well-known that the Rams are, in fact, bad. So how much of the Bears improved pass rush, their big-play running game and solid kick returning is real, and how much is a mirage seen through a haze of horrible St. Louis Rams football?

Next week at the Rollerdome, we should get an answer to some of those questions. If the Bears' win gives them confidence and allows them to deliver a similar kind of performance, the Bears might look back and call Sunday a turning point in their new, six-game season. If not, then it was just a middle-of-the-pack team beating a bad one.

� Eric Olson is the Northwest Herald's sports editor. Reach him at 815-526-4554, or e-mail eolson@nwherald.com. And read his live blog, "Blogger of the Midway", during every Bears game.

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Olson: Win means very little

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