Childress was asked if the score of Sunday's Bears-Texans game at Reliant Stadium will appear on the Metrodome scoreboard while the Vikings simultaneously play the Giants, the implication being an early Bears lead could affect the Viking adversely.

"I haven't decided," Childress said. "I think we're better served to focus on what's happening on our field."

With such uncertainty, Childress all but guaranteed the Vikings won't focus on anything but what might go wrong.

If the Bears had a sense of humor, they would finagle some tickets behind the Vikings' bench and send a team employee with a greaseboard to hold up periodic updates from Houston.

Childress even considering a news blackout at the Metrodome for Bears-Texans updates shows how little he trusts his team's mental toughness.

The trick for an NFL head coach isn't blocking out reality. The trick is getting good at ignoring or dismissing it for the good of his team.

Lovie Smith has mastered the difference.

If the Bears coach was ever in the same situation as Childress, can anybody imagine him publicly pondering such a thing? Say this about Smith: To a fault, he allows almost nothing outside the Bears' locker room during the week or on Sunday affect him. Thus it has little or no effect on his team.

That has made the Bears largely distraction-proof. At Halas Hall, dull is in, drama is out. Getting rid of controversy magnets such as Cedric Benson and Muhsin Muhammad, who were locker-room problems but headline-writers' solutions, only helped make it easier for the Bears to focus solely on Football this season.

Thus the team was able to take Tommie Harris' early one-game suspension, Brian Urlacher's custody battle and Terrence Metcalf's four-game suspension in stride.

By design, Smith downplays issues that coaches more excitable or quotable might magnify.

The Bears have become so single-minded about what they do that when Smith publicly endorsed President-elect Barack Obama in November, it was memorable because he got emotional in doing so and because it proved he knew there was an election occurring.

He isn't always as quick to acknowledge the obvious or any other reality outside Halas Hall.

But since 2005, only the Giants have a better record among NFC teams than the Bears' 40-23 so the filter through which Smith strives to funnel information to his team is at least an effective one.

In theory, the Bears could be affected similarly by Vikings-Giants updates at Reliant Stadium during their game, but they didn't need a roundtable discussion to consider whether they should pay attention or not.

They want up-to-the-minute updates so badly they would bring their BlackBerrys into the huddle if they could. "I'm sure we'll take a peek," Adewale Ogunleye said.

The Bears have been conditioned under Smith to worry only about themselves. The Vikings still worry about worrying about themselves. The difference could be the division championship.

Childress has lost six of seven games played after Dec. 17 as Vikings head coach. It doesn't sound like the trend is lost on the Vikings' locker room. Safety Darren Sharper was quoted saying he hoped the Giants would play reserves against them. That's confidence in something, but not a Minnesota victory.

Still, the Bears must do their part by beating the Texans in a game in which it has become trendy to pick the upstart hosts. Houston indeed poses a significant challenge with an offense ranked third in the NFL in total yards and a young, aggressive defense.

But remember, the Bears' defense typically gets tougher where the Texans' offense stalls. Despite the big numbers offensively, Houston has the league's fifth-lowest efficiency rate for scoring touchdowns inside the 20 at 44 percent. Facing third- and fourth-and-1 from the 5 last Sunday against the Raiders, the Texans called two straight passes. That resulted in two straight incompletions.

The Texans can beat themselves with similar decision-making and execution.

Expect Texans quarterback Matt Schaub to make every attempt to get the ball to Andre Johnson; they're 5-1 when he catches 10 or more passes, 2-7 when he doesn't. Figure local products Kevin Walter (from Libertyville) and Owen Daniels (from Naperville) will give their hometown team fits in a patchwork secondary.

But somehow, someway, it just seems as if these Bears will find a way to survive as they have enough during the first 16 weeks to be in position to win the NFC North.

The key could be getting off to a good start. Kyle Orton, who needs a defining moment in the biggest NFL game of his career, has the second-highest passer rating (113) in the first quarter.

The Bears need to attack the Texans downfield from the opening series. Get Orton some confidence back. Take an early lead.

Then have somebody text-message the score to a friend with a loud voice at the Metrodome to spread the news the Vikings have wasted time and energy fearing.

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Turning points

Five moves that helped put the Bears in position to win the NFC North title.

1. Extending Kyle Orton's contract one year in February 2008.

There has been much discussion about whether the Bears should make a long-term financial commitment to Orton this off-season. But consider the foresight Jerry Angelo showed last February in extending Orton's contract through 2009 instead of having it run out at the end of this season. If he hadn't, the looming question of Orton's free agency would have been one other distraction before the biggest game of the year.

2. Cutting Cedric Benson before training camp.

Unloading Benson not only rid the Bears of a potential unhappy camper but freed up carries for rookie Matt Forte, who assumed a go-to role easier and quicker without the specter of a failed first-round draft pick in the same meeting room. Forte has accounted for 35.74 percent of the Bears' offense -- the highest percentage in the NFL of any player.

3. Suspending Tommie Harris for the Oct. 5 Lions game to get his and everybody else's attention.

Harris has been a productive player ever since. In his 10 games since, Harris has 27 tackles, five sacks, eight tackles for losses, 10 quarterback hits and one fumble recovery -- the way the NFL's highest-paid defensive tackle should play. Swiftly disciplining Harris for consistent tardiness and criticizing management eradicated an issue in the locker room before it got contagious.

4. Bringing Mike Brown back for a ninth season.

Consider where the Bears might be in the secondary if Angelo would have cut Mike Brown as he appeared ready to do last January. Brown didn't have a great year, but his move to strong safety stabilized the secondary and beefed up the run defense. The Bears had enough issues at cornerback without having to worry about their safeties not stopping the run.

5. Replacing Devin Hester with Danieal Manning on kickoff returns.

It was a case of better late than never. Once the Bears decided the problem on kickoff returns wasn't the blocking in front of Hester but maybe the way Hester was reading the blocks, their special teams looked special again. Manning has been the NFL's best return man since he took over Nov. 16 (a 29.4 yard average) and helped the Bears pull out the last two overtime games.

-- David Haugh

dhaugh@tribune.com

Five players to watch Sunday

Marty Booker, Craig Stelts and others have a lot to play for. Read the story at chicagotribune.com/Bears