BEARS 42, Rams 27: These Guys Must Really Love Rex

This may have been the most total team effort of the season for the BEARS.

On a night when the defense was considerably less than perfect, Rex Grossman’s backfield and receivers refused to let him lose -- the game or his starting job -- and special teams came up big as well.

Bernard Berrian made a nice run after a catch for the first offensive touchdown. Cedric Bensen set it up with a couple powerful runs from scrimmage. Thomas Jones, who had 76 yards on only 11 carries, got 30 of them on his determined touchdown run. Muhsin Muhammed made a tremendous lunging catch for a score. Even Adrian Peterson had a touchdown. Admit it -- you had no idea Adrian Peterson was still on this team.

But the two best plays of the night belonged to rookie sensation Devin Hester with his two kickoff returns for touchdowns, his record-setting fifth and sixth of the year. Two TD kickoff returns is an outstanding season for most returns; it’s a phenomenol game for a rookie! On top of that, his first return took all the momentum away from the Rams after they put the first points of the game on the board.

As for Grossman, 13-for-23 for 200 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions isn’t All Pro material, but it’s a solid line. It's the kind of line this team needs from its quarterback to go all the way, and for that very reason, it's the kind of line some fans were hoping to see from Brian Griese.

As for that defense, well, it wasn’t horrible. They clearly missed Mike Brown for downfield coverage and Tommie Harris for pocket pressure, as Mark Bulger picked them apart at times. In fairness, Bulger is currently the second best quarterback in the NFC (if you throw out the injured Donovan McNabb), but the Bulger-vs.-BEARS-defense matchup was intriguing because of the growing liklihood that the BEARS will meet the top dog, Drew Brees, in the playoffs.

Overall, the defense looked shaky in the first half but played well enough to preserve the lead. In the decisive third quarter, the defense gave up one first down and 31 total yards, and didn’t allow St. Louis across midfield. To be certain, 27 is more points than they wanted to give up, but half of that came in extended garbage time.

So the bottom line is, the BEARS are 11-2 and still the class of the NFC. With two more victories against three teams who have a combined 10 wins, the BEARS will lock up the No. 1 seed and make Brees try to do his thing in Soldier Field in January. I still like their chances of coming out of the NFC.