Mediocrity reigns even at the top of the NFL

Lovie Smith is delighted his Chicago Bears won the first two games of their three-game Northeast trip. He should be, because those wins just about locked up home-field advantage for Chicago in the NFC.

What they also proved is that even the best teams in the NFL are only a smidgen or two better than mediocre, a notion reinforced last week when Dallas handed Indianapolis its first loss, a defeat that had been pending since the first week of the season.

Yes, 9-1 is 9-1. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” is the way Vince Lombardi put it 40 years ago.

But this isn’t Lombardi’s NFL. This is the NFL where even the best teams are seriously flawed and the luck of the injury report often determines the standings.

Start at the top with Indianapolis and Chicago.

The Colts’ first loss, to Dallas last Sunday, seems in one sense to be just what the Colts wanted, especially because it was a non-conference game and won’t count in any tiebreakers for AFC home-field advantage. The team’s party line for the past two seasons, when it started 13-0 and 9-0, has been that it cares only about winning the Super Bowl, not about going unbeaten.

It also means the Colts might have to play out most of the season rather than rest regulars, because they lead San Diego and Baltimore by only one game. That means more Peyton Manning, less Jim Sorgi, and perhaps a team playing at top speed entering the postseason.

That exposes more people to injuries, but momentum, as Pittsburgh can attest from its title run last season, can be an important factor.

Right now Indianapolis’ momentum is negative.

Even before they lost, the Colts looked pretty average most of the time, as evidenced by one-point wins at home over Tennessee and Buffalo. Coach Tony Dungy maintains that close games give teams experience for the tightness of the playoffs, where Indy has been notably unsuccessful, presumably because they’ve won a lot of blowouts in the regular season.

“Sometimes when you win, the other team outplays you and it’s hard to learn from your mistakes,” middle linebacker Gary Brackett says.

That may be. But there’s a deeper problem.

Teams that can’t stop the run don’t normally win titles, and Indianapolis remains last in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing 155 yards a game. That’s partly a factor of the salary cap. Because Indianapolis’ premier offensive players, Manning and Marvin Harrison, cost so much, the Colts have had to let go of some very good defenders, notably linebackers Mike Peterson and Marcus Washington, to stay under the cap.

Chicago doesn’t have those worries -- it pays its defense and hasn’t had any premier offensive players to let go.

More than any NFL franchise, the Bears have maintained the same personality for half a century or longer: “Monsters of the Midway.” The storied 1985 champions had only one offensive standout, running back Walter Payton, and their 46-10 Super Bowl win over New England was sparked by the defense. It included a safety, an interception return for a touchdown, and seven sacks. Defensive end Richard Dent was the game’s MVP.

This team doesn’t have a Payton. Nor does it have a wide receiver like Willie Gault or a quarterback like Jim McMahon. It does have a weak division, as did the Bears of the mid-’80s, who from 1984-88 went 35-4 against teams from what was then the NFC Central.

But these Bears can be run on, as Miami did in Chicago’s only loss. And Rex Grossman, for all his early success, remains a quarterback who will be making just his 18th NFL start in New England today and has been shaky of late.