It is wins like this that throw the monkey wrench in the machine that is progress.  After blowing a 23-6 lead, the Bears stripped Adrian Peterson of the football in overtime followed by Jay Cutler hitting Devin Aromashodu with the winning TD and the Bears came away with a heart stopping 36-30 win over Brett Favre and the Vikings.

If you are an optimist and see things as glass half full, you will say that this shows this team is close.  You will say that the potential of players like Aromashodu , Chris Williams, Greg Olsen and others and that good times are just around the corner.  If you are a pessimist and see things as half empty, you'll say "where the hell were these guys against Cincinnati and Arizona and Green Bay." 

I, my friends, am a pessimist.

All this win did was make things worse, not better. 

If Lovie Smith was on the hot seat prior to this game, the win demonstrates that his team can, when it chooses to, play.  It shows a well thought out game plan works.  It shows Jay Cutler does have weapons, that the defense can stop the run and that maybe, just maybe, this team wasn't that bad after all.

The optimist looks for bright things in the future.  The pessimist is frustrated thinking with the right coaching (The Chin) this team could be a lot better.  The optimist drinks a large cup of Lovie kool-aid.  The pessimist drinks Jack Daniels, straight from the bottle.  And keeps on drinking.

With Detroit being the final opponent, the Bears are almost guaranteed to finish the season at 7-9.  While that's crappy, with two consecutive wins, one over a playoff team and the best team in the division, Smith's execution may be pushed back until 2010.  Instead of being shown the door, he may be shown the light, purging his staff of the dead weight (you know who you are, Ron Turner) and hiring some decent coaches.  In any case, the higher ups in the organization may have viewed this last night as something that will save Lovie, thus saving them money.

Never mind the Bears almost blew it in the fourth quarter.  Never mind the only reason Aromashodu was playing was because Devin Hester couldn't.

If the Bears had come out and gotten stomped like they did in their previous outing against the Vikings, Lovie and his people could begin negotiating the termination settlement.  Since the Bears shocked the world, Lovie is probably on higher ground.

Revel in the win Bears fans.  Any win over a Brett Favre quarterbacked team is a win worth savoring, especially since the Packers couldn't beat him this year.  But know this: Last night's win may have been a huge future loss.

Lightning Round

• I don't usually watch Monday night football, but I couldn't believe how bad Jon Gruden was.  Hey coach, you may want to look up how to say some of the Bears player's names.  It's Rah-Sheed Wallace, not Rah-Sheedy.  Kudos to Mike Tirico for not correcting him.

• ESPN also gets kudos for keeping the level of Favre love to a minimum.  Of course, the way he played the first three quarters, who could have blamed them?  Besides, the story was the Bears.