That championship reeling

The winning of a championship, even a division title, is usually accompanied by celebration. Not for the Bears, who seem to have adopted a strange ritual that includes a form of mourning and lamentation replete with appropriately black baseball caps announcing their status as NFC North champions.

''They're definitely celebrating in there,'' a defiant Bears coach Lovie Smith said before locker room ''visitation.''

Maybe it's a cultural difference, but you can certainly have more fun at a wake or funeral than the Bears were having after beating the Vikings. Consider this perfectly conflicted answer from quarterback Rex Grossman when asked about securing a playoff spot.

''It just feels great -- but I feel like we lost -- winning a division championship,'' Grossman said. ''There are a lot of things that are unusual about this press conference right now.''

Grossman was indeed a loser on this day. Needing a big game to justify the decision to stick with him as the starting quarterback, he delivered a statement game. The statement is that he needs to sit.

''Don't get me wrong, we're really happy with what just happened, but we know offensively we have to get a lot better,'' a somber Olin Kreutz said. ''We haven't played real well on offense, the last ... I don't know how long.''

Members of the red-hot defense --the unit that won this game almost singlehandedly -- didn't criticize their teammates, but according to a sideline report, finally started to show disgust with the repeated turnovers. Grossman threw three interceptions, increasing his total to 15 in the last seven games to go with four lost fumbles in that stretch.

The Bears won the game with big plays, but finished with an anemic 107 total yards -- 241 fewer than the Vikings, who became the second team in a row to produce more than 300 yards against a Bears defense that hadn't allowed any of their first 10 opponents to exceed that amount. The Vikings managed the big yards because they held the ball for just under 40 minutes in the game because of the abundance of turnovers.

Remarkably, it was Minnesota that changed quarterbacks. Brad Johnson was pulled after his fourth interception. He ended three consecutive drives by throwing picks. Cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. returned one for a touchdown, breaking on the ball on the right sideline and racing past Johnson for a 54-yard score.

''It would have been very embarrassing,'' Manning said when asked how he'd have felt if the slow-footed Johnson caught him. ''Even if I had to cut back, it would have been kind of embarrassing. He was rolling, too. ... He was mad about that one. When you're mad, you can run a little faster. He was rolling. That got me nervous.

''I don't think it sealed the game, but it was a pivotal point. They were gaining momentum, and that play right there swung everything.''

About a minute and a half after Manning's touchdown, Cedric Benson broke a 24-yard scoring run on fourth-and-one. The possession was set up by an interception by Brian Urlacher, and Benson said he wasn't even aware it was fourth-and-one when he broke an inside run outside and found an open sideline, diving into the end zone from two yards out.

''Once I got the ball, everybody was so tight inside, I just took a peek outside and there was nobody out there, so I just hit it full speed,'' said Benson, another Bears player who isn't a happy camper. He rolled his eyes when asked about his success the last couple of weeks, including 60 yards on nine carries against the usually stout Minnesota run defense.

Benson said he played in only four offensive series and that his workload hasn't increased despite his obvious improvement. Benson's feelings on the subject of playing time have been consistent most of the season, but coupled with some angry defensive linemen who declined to speak in protest of what they felt was unfair criticism last week and the dejected offense, it was a strange scene.

Not only did the Bears clinch back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1987-88, they became the first NFL team to win their division. Baltimore blew a chance to do that Thursday, and Indianapolis squandered an opportunity Sunday. Teams that were the first to clinch their respective divisions the last three years all played in the Super Bowl. Seattle did it in Week 13 last year, Philadelphia did it in Week 12 the year before and New England did it in Week 14 in 2003.

The Bears pull off the feat and seem bereaved. It's all about the quarterback. Smith says the team has no intention of pulling Grossman, while the quarterback and offensive coordinator Ron Turner say fortunes can turn around in a hurry.

But Grossman has been giving the ball away too frequently. The only thing saving the Bears is the way the defense has forced takeaways. There were 10 turnovers Sunday (five by both teams) and nine last week by the Bears and Patriots.

''I know from our side of it, we can't turn the ball over like that and they are avoidable,'' Turner said. ''We can't make them. We're not going to get where we need to go being careless with the football.''

Maybe that's why they were grieving Sunday.