Opportunity is before them, but the same speech that was made Monday morning at Halas Hall was echoed in Green Bay and Minnesota. All three teams are 5-5, and the winner of the NFC North gets a spot in the playoffs even if it may not deserve one.

''That's the good part about having this six-game season starting up,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said. ''Hopefully some of those things we can take care of.''

Smith kept pounding home the six-game season theme, and while acknowledging his team didn't play well Sunday in a 37-3 loss at Green Bay, he seemed to want to pass off the worst loss in his five seasons as an aberration instead of a harbinger of things to come.

He referenced a 45-0 loss Tampa Bay suffered to Oakland in 1999, five weeks before the Buccaneers played in the NFC title game. He talked about the 35-7 beatdown the Bears put on the Packers in the regular-season finale last year, four weeks before Green Bay played for a trip to the Super Bowl. Don't forget, the '85 Bears had a bad night once, too.

''Things happen,'' Smith said. ''I have been in this situation before. Good teams go through this. You make your corrections and you move on. It's no more than that. We have too much Football left to go to harp on what happened, why it happened. Just move on.''

With that in mind, we present five suggestions as the Bears push ahead to -- you got it -- the six-game season:

1. Sell out to stop the run

Now we know why it made sense for the Bears to play an abundance of eight-man fronts that led to their being torched through the air by a cast of ordinary passers: because they can't stop the run if they don't sell out to stop it. With fewer eight-man fronts in fear of Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Grant and the Packers ran roughshod over the defense.

It's better to lose close games by getting nickel-and-dimed in the passing game, as in the previous defeats, than to be mauled. There's nothing more demoralizing than watching an opponent put your defensive linemen on roller skates and push them all over the field.

It helps that Smith and defensive coordinator Bob Babich have learned this lesson. They can go back to defending the run the way they were and take their chances playing the pass. Make an opponent chuck the ball 40 or 50 times a game, and your defensive backs might make a play or two on the ball and create some turnovers.

Play like they did at Green Bay, and the Bears will have the footprints of opposing running backs on their posteriors the rest of the season.

The veteran Brown already was moved to strong safety to be in position to make more plays in the box, where free safety Kevin Payne is also at his best. Deploy them against the run and hope the corners can do a better job stopping the quick slants.

2. Bring the heat

The sack numbers are concerning: only five in the last five games and a season pace of 27, which would be the franchise's second-lowest figure in a 16-game schedule. But that doesn't mean the blitz has not been effective. Entering the Green Bay game, the Bears were the No. 1 defense in the league against the pass when they blitzed. Opponents had a passer rating of 52.0, according to STATS Inc., and seven of the Bears' 12 interceptions have come on blitzes.

The pass rush isn't getting home any other way, so Babich needs to dial up the pressure, even go exotic and take some chances. The numbers show the defense has produced just five sacks in 140 pass attempts on blitzes, but you can't ignore the passer rating.

3. Know your strength

Rookie running back Matt Forte is the most consistent thing the offense has had all season. Tennessee and Green Bay combined to possess the ball for more than 70 minutes in the last two games. The only way to give the beleaguered defense a chance is to control the ball.

A few sustained drives that produce points, and the defense can start playing with a lead for a change. Things like that do wonders for your pass rush. The Bears have had minimal production from the wide receivers, so keep the ball in Forte's hands.

4. He's the Manning

Devin Hester got the hook on kickoff returns in the fourth quarter at Green Bay, and Danieal Manning provided a spark. Few realistic moves would resonate as loudly as sitting Hester on kickoffs for a while and giving Manning a shot. He's explosive and knows only one direction -- north-south -- and it might do Hester some good to focus on punt returns and his receiving role.

It's not like Manning is just some guy. He could start in the role for a lot of teams, and he led the league in kickoff returns in the preseason.

5. Tackle the issue

Rookie defensive tackle Marcus Harrison has provided some sparks inside and might benefit from more playing time. It's also as good a time as any to dust off Anthony Adams. Dusty Dvoracek was pushed around by the Packers, and Israel Idonije has been playing too high in recent weeks. The coaching staff has juggled personnel everywhere else on defense. Time to try something new at tackle.

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