So basically, it was a typical game for the Bears.

They lost 31-24 to the Houston Texans, and the season is over. A win would have landed them in the playoffs.

Someone asked Alex Brown what he would think about this season when he looks back, and he gave the perfect answer: ''I hope after tomorrow, I won't.''

Amen. But just when you thought this painful year was finally over, coach Lovie Smith actually had the nerve to say this:

''When you finish 9-7, you're close. That's what 9-7 says. We're close.''

Still in denial. After all of that, after watching the Texans get the ball at their 11-yard line with 9 1/2 minutes left, then go over, around and through Smith's signature defense for more than six minutes and the clinching touchdown -- six minutes! -- Smith still felt it necessary to announce that he was right.

Close to what?

The season was over, and he was right. His defense, the face and identity of a once-tough franchise, couldn't make one stop over 371 seconds, and he was right.

They're close. They're close? Close to what?

''When you're 9-7, you're close,'' he insisted again. ''You don't need an overhaul.''

Without an overhaul, we're going to get this all over again. Smith is that obstinate, that with clear evidence this team is in serious need of major fixing, it's more important to him to insist he was right.

It's over, but he was right.

Let's start with defensive coordinator Bob Babich. Smith was wrong about him, wrong to get rid of a successful Super Bowl-leading coordinator in Ron Rivera just so he could put a yes-man and good friend in his place.

The defense never has been the same. And how many times did the Bears try to tell us last year that the problem was injuries? Now we know it wasn't.

It was Smith. He was wrong.

Babich cannot be the coordinator anymore. Anyone open-minded, trying to do what's best for the Bears, can see that.

Much of the rest of Smith's staff is wrong, too. He and general manager Jerry Angelo wanted to get that college enthusiasm into the Bears and hired a lot of college coaches, as if NFL experience is a negative.

Smith was wrong. Angelo was wrong.

Listen to what else Brown said: ''We missed the playoffs last year; we missed the playoffs this year. I don't know if that's improvement. Doesn't seem like it to me.

''I'm very, very tired of people talking about two years ago [the Super Bowl team]. We don't have the same team as two years ago. We don't have the same attitude. Please do me a favor and don't talk about '06. We don't have the same attitude.''

They don't have the same attitude. So Smith's and Angelo's college-coach plan was wrong.

Brown said he wasn't going to say anything crazy, wasn't going to say what he thinks the problem really is. As general and noncommittal as that statement was, it seemed that he could have been talking about Babich.

Forte, and then what?

What we found out this year was that the Bears now have a running back in rookie Matt Forte. That was a draft choice out of necessity because Smith and Angelo kept making mistakes on Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. We found that Kyle Orton is decent enough to keep around, though the Bears need to draft a quarterback to compete with him.

Orton finally got a chance to play only after years of Smith and Angelo insisting they were right about Rex Grossman, who never will wear a Bears uniform again.

The offensive line played well for half the season, but it's too old, and that showed at the end. Angelo was wrong in not rebuilding it earlier.

But the most serious problem is that Smith and Angelo were in denial last year about the defense, and still seem to be. The bulk of the payroll is on that side of the field for the long term because the defense is the heart of the franchise.

Then it gave up a six-minute drive to lose the season, not to mention 455 yards of offense for the game.

And Smith said the Bears are close.

What about the offense? Maybe the plan of winning with defense and special teams, and an offense that simply doesn't botch things, is outdated. I asked offensive coordinator Ron Turner if the Bear Way still can work today, and he said, ''Oh, yeah, no question.''

He did admit the team needs to look for upgrades. Presumably that meant at wide receiver, where ''upgrade'' and ''heartbeat'' are the same thing.

Did Orton's decision-making get worse as the year went on? Turner said Orton did have some things to ''clean up'' and did so, then had a ''great'' game at Houston.

''I thought he did last week, too,'' Turner said.

Against the Packers?

Wrong.

This thing is a mess, Smith's and Angelo's mess, winning nine games by coincidence. Meanwhile, every time we turn around, another failed ex-Bear is playing great somewhere else.

The season is over. But Lovie Smith? He wants you to know he's right.

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