It’s a comfort knowing there are fans out there who never lost faith that things would get better for the Chicago Bears in the wake of their 2014 trial-by-fire. Still, there were some who felt the 5-11 season under Marc Trestman was only the beginning of the hell fans would have to go through, predicting an even uglier season in 2015.

Among them was USA Today, who showed zero confidence in the idea that the Bears would be anything but irrelevant by December in the NFL playoff picture.

“Bears (3-13): Defense will look almost entirely different in terms of personnel and scheme. They can only hope QB Jay Cutler looks entirely different from 2014 version under new coaching staff.”

This is something that would’ve been possible had Trestman and his staff stayed in place but it’s difficult to understand how logic didn’t intercept this writer when he saw John Fox get hired in the off-season, along with two of the best coordinators in the business in Vic Fangio and Adam Gase. At the very least it would’ve been reasonable to expect them to win the same number of games as a year ago.

The Bears franchise has not won fewer than four games in a season since 1982, and that was a strike-shortened year (3-6).

As to his point about Cutler, is it not somewhat over exaggerated. Jay led the league in turnovers last year. That’s a fair point but he also nearly broke franchise records with 3, 812 passing yards and 30 total touchdowns.

If he could perform like that under a coaching staff that was so obviously in over its head, why is it so crazy to think he might improve under a head coach like John Fox who turned Jake Delhomme in a Pro Bowler and Tim Tebow into a playoff hero? Cutler has shown he can win a few games on his sheer talent alone, incompetent coaches or not.

If nothing else this is just another that even respected news sources like USA Today aren’t invincible from the truth of telling the future: you’ll probably be wrong. The Bears will have a chance to double the win total projected for them on Sunday when the 3-8 San Francisco 49ers come to visit Soldier Field.