Lions open post-Millen era at home vs. Bears

The Bears have a clear-cut No. 1 quarterback in Kyle Orton, who threw a career-high three TD passes in last week's win over Philadelphia.

No one is clamoring for Rex Grossman to get back on the field even though he was their quarterback in the Super Bowl two seasons ago, killing any possible controversy.

"Yeah that's nice when you can just worry about getting your football team better," coach Lovie Smith acknowledged. "In most places you talk about the quarterback and what he's doing at the time. And it's all short term, too. This week what happens, next week different things come up."

While Detroit defied the league's trademark of parity under Millen, the Bears were really good, very bad, good again and average.

Chicago won seven games last season, but didn't win consecutive games until closing the year with two victories. The Bears opened this season with a win over Indianapolis, then lost two before beating the Eagles.

"We're trying to get on a winning streak," Devin Hester said. "We're looking at it like we're playing the Patriots or some of the top teams right now.

"We're not looking at their record."

The Lions are an NFC-worst 10-25 since 2006 under coach Rod Marinelli. He insisted he's not going to battle the perception that the next general manager will want to hire his own coach after asking a reporter to define lame-duck coach.

Marinelli said a conversation with owner William Clay Ford helped narrow his focus

"We just talked about beating Chicago," Marinelli said.

Smith and Marinelli are good friends who coached together for the Buccaneers, but this isn't the week for sympathy.

"He'll eventually get it done," Smith said. "It's pretty early in the football season to really get too high on what people are doing, or get too low on what people are doing.

"On a personal note, too, we just don't want things to change an awful lot this week. We need to get a win just as bad as Detroit does."

The Lions were beaten in each of their first three games after falling behind early, digging a pair of 21-0 holes and a 21-3 deficit.

Kitna had a screaming rant on the sideline in the opener and acknowledged quitting on a play in the second game, and threw three straight interceptions in his last outing.

"We're all lame duck if that's our approach," Kitna said. "Your approach is to be a pro. If you win football games, climb in the race and somehow sneak in the playoffs, everybody can feel more secure. If not, I don't think anybody's secure - besides Calvin (Johnson)."

Acting general manager Martin Mayhew has a glass half-full view of the Lions, noting they're not far behind the first-place Bears and Packers.

Marinelli has shared the mind-set with his team.

"Thirteen games to go. Do the math," Marinelli recalled telling his players. "Go win a game, and you have a chance to regenerate this whole thing. But it starts with the first game."