The entire football world is searching for, if not a historically great team, at least a team to believe in.

Why not the Chicago Bears?

OK, 13-7 over the Detroit Lions wasn't a masterpiece, but then again who in professional football today is painting any of those? With a fourth straight win, a Gladiatorial victory over Detroit, the only team in the NFL with a longer winning streak than the Bears' is the undefeated but hard-to-buy Atlanta Falcons. And the Falcons don't play defense like these Bears do; nobody does. The Bears, rather defiantly, keep succeeding with a throwback style of defense the NFL has done everything to eliminate.

Charles Tillman held Calvin Johnson to three catches for 34 yards on Monday night. David Banks/Getty Images

The Bears lined up Charles "Peanut" Tillman across from maybe the best receiver in the game, Calvin Johnson, and told him to "sic" Megatron, which is exactly what happened. The Bears have made the turnover such an art, the defensive players are absolutely convinced in some cult-like way that they're going to relieve offenses of the ball. Henry Melton gave voice to this after the game Monday night when he said, "It's going to pop out. It just is. The ball is going to come out." And how do you argue with him after the Bears forced the Lions into four more turnovers, three of which were inside the red zone?

They play offense in fits and starts, but Matt Forte and Michael Bush are a 1-2 punch in the face. And while the passing game is still searching, nobody seems to have any answer for Jay Cutler-to-Brandon Marshall, which produced a half-dozen receptions Monday night, including the team's only touchdown.

They're 5-1 with a home game next week against the lost Carolina Panthers, then a date with the Tennessee Titans. OK, we'll see what we see when the Bears go back-to-back with the Houston Texans at Soldier Field and the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park. And maybe that's a two-step they're not up for; but until then, why not the Bears?

OK, maybe the Giants are just as good, but they've got a couple of clunker losses on the resume, including the season opener at home to the Cowboys, whom the Bears bludgeoned and stuffed in the trunk down in Dallas. The New England Patriots? How good are you if you need OT at home with the New York Jets? The Green Bay Packers appear to be hot again but an already suspect defense is now going to have to play without Charles Woodson for four to six weeks? Atlanta keeps getting benefit of the doubt despite looking like weaklings in the playoffs year after year.

The Bears, whose only loss this season was at Lambeau Field where the Packers ought to win, are a more complete team than the Falcons. A close win over a division opponent coming off a playoff season, which is what the Lions are, is more impressive than a close win at home over the Oakland Raiders, which is what the Falcons were sort of lucky to come away with.

The Bears took care of a Lions team that was riding some momentum after their big comeback win in Philly last week. It figured to be nasty and fight-filled and low-scoring because it's a division game in a division that expects to put three teams in the playoffs. The Lions arrived desperate and motivated, yet couldn't score until 30 seconds remained in the game.

Oh, the Bears want nothing to do with being at the top of anybody's power ratings. They want to fly under the radar, tip-toe through the season completely without notice. These aren't Ditka Bears, they're Lovie Bears, even if they play the same way, which is to say rely on smacking people in the mouth. As Brian Urlacher said before leaving the locker room, "There's a long way to go in this season. We've got four more division games. I don't want anybody to notice. I'd like to stay totally off the radar. You know what the problem is? Too many national TV games."