Bears struggle to come to grips with 3-9.(Chicago Tribune)

GREEN BAY, Wis. _ The more time you spend around the Bears, the more you realize that this is a team that has separated itself from reality, established residency inside a bubble and generally seceded from the union of right-thinking individuals.

Quarterback Jim Miller offered up an impassioned defense of the Bears after their 30-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. But what might have been good for his soul didn't do much in the way of advancing the study of logic.

"We're doing enough to win games, let's put it that way, but we're making enough mistakes to lose them," Miller said. "That's all I can say. . . . This team is in it every week. I truly believe the only game we were out of was (at Minnesota). I think everyone in that locker room feels that way.

"If we cut out the crucial mistakes, I think this season is different. Whether you agree with it or anybody else agrees with it, I know because I watch that tape and I study it and I know what this team is capable of. This team is a good football team. It is. Again, whether you believe it or not, write what you want but this team will win with the guys we have here."

The problem with this line of thinking is that it makes the Bears' mistakes seem like surprises instead of facts of life. The Bears do dumb things because that's what they are. The mistakes that haunt this team aren't out-of-body experiences or acts of God that can't be helped.

They are as part of the Bears as shoulder pads and helmets. Bad teams can no more cut out mistakes than they can score 45 points a game. The Bears are bad from top to bottom right now.

When coach Dick Jauron decided to challenge an official's call in the third quarter Sunday, it wasn't a case of bad luck settling over the Bears like dusk. It was a case of dumb.