Mike Mulligan: If winning breeds confidence, it's no surprise the Bears are feeling pretty good about themselves after stacking a couple of victories together and finding themselves atop the NFC North. ''We're heading to the Super Bowl,'' defensive end Mark Anderson said. ''I really feel that way.''
Mike Mulligan: Bears quarterback Kyle Orton says he doesn't really have a baseball team to call his own, but if you push him on the subject, he'd take the White Sox. Shortly after the Bears' 34-7 blowout victory over Detroit at Ford Field, Orton nonetheless commiserated with Cubs fans heartbroken over the abrupt end to a season of glory.
DETROIT -- With just three catches in the Bears' first four games, you can understand if wide receiver Marty Booker was beginning to feel like something of a forgotten man. In his second go-around with the Bears, it has seemed like Booker wanted to be here a bit more than the Bears wanted him back.
Mike Mulligan: It took the Philadelphia Eagles and their top-ranked run defense to finally get the Bears to reduce the workload of rookie running back Matt Forte, whose 19 carries Sunday night marked his fewest in any game this season. Nonetheless, at the quarter mark, Forte leads all NFL running backs with 92 carries, which projects to 368 for the season.
Not again. Not another fourth-quarter collapse. Not another cruel loss.
Mike Mulligan: Devin Hester can sometimes seem more force of nature than mere mortal. Maybe that's why it was so disturbing to see him carted off the field at Carolina with a rib injury. Hester could've walked off the field, but he was in such discomfort, it didn't make sense to force the issue.
Mike Mulligan: Never mind that the game had the aesthetic value of an emu eating a Brillo pad -- no doubt with the same morning-after result. Forget the lunatic play-call on third-and-one, the dumb penalties and the mindless fumbles.
Mike Mulligan: The supreme disorder that has thrown the football world asunder wasn't so much lost on the Bears this week as it was simply shrugged off. Maybe it's easy for the local franchise to lose the plot when a player the caliber of Tom Brady goes down for the season with a knee injury.
Things don't get any easier for the Indianapolis Colts today when they travel to Minnesota to face a tough Vikings defense still licking its wounds after a loss at Green Bay. Peyton Manning said the Colts need to improve dramatically after being held to 13 points by the Bears last week. The Colts have started 7-0 every season since 2004 but were stonewalled by a Bears defense that scored a touchdown on a Lance Briggs fumble return and a safety by Adewale Ogunleye.