Ok, fellow Bears' fans let's put things in perspective… Currently, the Bears are tied for first place and play a home game against Green Bay next month, in a game that will likely decide the division championship. All other games on the schedule are winnable and should see the Bears as the favorite. At the start of the season, most of the "experts" predicted the Bears would win 8-9 games and finish behind Detroit and Green Bay in their own division. So, ask yourself, Bears fans, would have been happy knowing the current position at the start of the season?

Last night was a bad loss and the Bears looked terrible against the 49ers, but it was only ONE loss. The line got embarrassed but we knew that weakness coming into the season. The sad thing about last night is every position group looked bad. Not one Bear player looked good, including Urlacher, Peppers, Briggs, Tillman, Jennings, safeties, etc. In an ironic twist, Kellen Davis may have been the best Bear last night. That should tell you all you need to know about how poorly the Bears played.

This team is better than last night's performance and it will come back strong. As bad as the game was, and it was bad, one game will not define the Bears' season because the Bears won't let it. They have shown resiliency in the past and we have every reason to expect they will again. Looking forward, the offense is likely to get better when all the players get back in the lineup.

The team missed Cutler last night. Jeffery, Bennett and Forte all have missed games at various times during the season. There's been no continuity and the offense hasn't been able to get into any rhythm. The best offensive game was probably opening day, which was the last time all key players were healthy and playing together for awhile. Big picture, it's a long season and anything can happen. Most of the recent Superbowl winners were not who you thought they would be.

Think about how bad the Giants looked squeaking into the post season at 9-7 before winning the Superbowl last year. Think about how bad the Packers looked before they squeaked into the playoffs and won the Superbowl the year before. The days of going wire to wire as the dominant front runner appear gone. In the NFL, you are what your record says you are and the Bears are 7-3 atop the division, tied with the Green Bay Packers.

Any team that can make the playoffs with momentum has a good chance to win the Superbowl. This could be the Bears' year. If history is any guide, the stretch run will tell us much more about their chances than the first ten games. In the NFL (not for long) league, you never know what's around the corner. It is possible that the 49ers game was the beginning of a long downward spiral for the Bears like last year. It's also possible and more likely, based on the entire body of their work, that it's the wake up call they need to begin their stretch run.

When it's over, we'll all look back and laugh about how we worried about a season on the brink that wasn't on the brink, merely at an inflection point.