Bears: Scared of the dark

^

This Week's NFL Top Ten Things:

1. Good news for the Bears: They only have one more Sunday night game scheduled.

And if they have a chance to be "flexed" into another, they should politely turn it down.

Weird stuff happens on Sunday nights to Lovie's Lads - who are 3-0 during the day and 0-2 in prime time, with losses at Green Bay to start the season and now at Atlanta.

Jay Cutler is Mr. Franchise in the afternoon, Mr. Not So Much at night. Matt Forte, who just about never fumbles, coughs up the football on consecutive goal-line plays. Pisa Tinoisamoa gets hurt on the first play of the season at Green Bay, misses the next three games and then gets hurt again at Atlanta. Orlando Pace, the 119-year-old statue of a left tackle, costs the Bears dearly when he loses his balance for a penalty on a late fourth-and-1 snap at the Georgia Dome. The special teams, sensational in the three afternoon games, are mistake-prone, penalty-prone and what-the-f-just-happened prone at night.

And it doesn't get any weirder than this:

Lovie actually admits to NBC's Andrea Kremer that he and his defense have been bamboozled by Atlanta's no-huddle offense.

2. With the Patriots leading the Titans 45-0 in the third quarter, Hoodie Belichick still had Tom Brady in the game.

Not only that ... Brady, who missed all but a few plays of 2008 with a knee injury, was still dropping back, still planting his surgically repaired knee in the New England snow and still flinging passes.

If anything happened to Brady, Pats owner Bob Kraft would have had little choice but to fire Hoodie immediately.

Either that, or shoot him.

3. Quote of the day (and perhaps the season) from Titans tight end Bo Scaife:

"I don't think anybody in this league is 59 points better than us."

Way to stand proud, Bo!

4. It's fun to watch the way great QBs such as Drew Brees and Brett Favre trust their receivers to make big plays.

The receivers in New Orleans and Minnesota aren't always wide open but Brees and Favre put the ball in places that let their guys jump or dive or stretch or do whatever they have to do to catch passes - and to make great QBs look even greater.

Guys like Brees and Favre don't just "take what the defense gives us." That's what losers do.

Brees and Favre try to take what needs to be taken. Not coincidentally, their teams have yet to lose.

5. Obviously inspired by Rush Limbaugh's ouster from a potential ownership group ...

The Rams went out and almost didn't suck.

6. Only time will tell if Rex Ryan is as big a head-coaching fraud as his old man was.

He's off to a good start.

7. Goat of the day:

You could almost hear Steve Hauschka's knees knockin' as the young Ravens kicker lined up for the 44-yard field goal that would have beaten the Vikings.

8. My wife thinks Falcons coach Mike Smith "kinda looks like Paulie Walnuts."

And, you know what? Add a few streaks of black dye to Smith's hair, and she's kinda right!

9. It seems statistically impossible that the Redskins have faced only winless teams in their first six games.

Bad as the Redskins are, it seems just plain impossible that they actually have won twice.

10. One week after going 2-of-17 for 23 yards with a 15.1 rating, Derek Anderson really lit it up for the Browns:

9-of-24 for 122 yards with a 51.0 rating as the Browns managed to get outgained by a mere 346 yards against the Steelers.

Anderson, by the by, is entrenched as Eric Mangenius' QB.

Um ... how bad must Brady Quinn be?

BONUS THING: If they were playing the Phillies, the Eagles would have lost 11-9.