BEARS 33, Saints 25: Whoop-De-Freakin'-Doo

When two teams combine for five fourth-down conversion attempts, you know you're watching the last game of the season between two sub-.500 teams.

And when Adrian Peterson is flinging touchdown passes in the ugliest trick play ever seen (or at least the ugliest successful trick play ever seen), you know you're watching the last game of the season between two sub-.500 teams.

And when one team starts a drive with 26 seconds left in the half after the other team fumbled, only to have its drive killed by a goal line interception, which is returned and then fumbled back to the driving team while still within field goal distance, you KNOW you're watching the last game of the season between two sub-.500 teams.

But hey, a win is a win. Seven and nine feels a heck of a lot better than six and ten, even if it does remind us just how tantalizingly close to being a playoff team these BEARS were this year.

After all, this was the BEARS' first two-game winning streak of the season. So now we know they were capable of it all year long. Just ONE win against the Lions OR Vikings -- combined with 60 solid minutes of defense against the Redskins OR Giants -- and this season would have had a very different ending.

But, it's over now, and it's time to look ahead to next year. If the BEARS can be as dominant on defense and competent on offense as they were in the last two games, they could do quite well indeed against a last-place schedule.

The former is quite plausible. Even with Lance Briggs gone, this team should be OK if it doesn't have the injuries it did this year.

The latter is a much better question. In fact, it's at least four questions ...

* Is Kyle Orton the answer? Well, he sure as heck looked like it against New Orleans. He threw the deep ball, he didn't make mistakes and in general he looked like he belonged on a good NFL team. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, though.

* Can the BEARS get a marquee receiver? It's possible that they already have one in Devin Hester. He's had a year to learn how to play the position, and he certainly has the potential. I wouldn't quite count on that one either, though.

* Where will the running game come from? Here I don't have an answer. I love Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe, but jiminy jillikers, you put the two of them together and you still don't have a feature NFL back.

* Will the offensive line finally get too old to be effective? I'm afraid the answer here is a resounding yes. This, of course, raises the obvious question of where will the replacements come from. Given the BEARS draft history, I'm not hopeful -- and that's complicated by the fact that it will be very, very difficult to pass on Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan when the BEARS' pick comes up. We could looking at a year of watching him get tossed around by opposing defenses, with no protection, while he learns about the NFL.

So at the end of the day, this win may have been little more than a tease. But at least we can savor it for eight more months.