Bears advance, even as flaws show

The higher the stakes, it seems, the lower the standards for the Chicago Bears.

They won their first seven games in the regular season and elicited comparisons to the Super Bowl XX champion Bears team. That proved to be excessive, but all the Bears had to do Sunday for a spot in the NFC championship game was be superior to the Seattle Seahawks.

The Bears managed to do that, winning 27-24 in overtime, despite an increasingly vulnerable defense and a highly questionable coaching decision. The beauty of playing in the NFC is that perfection isn’t mandatory. Adequate will do just fine, especially for a franchise that had not won a home playoff game since Jan. 6, 1991, when it beat the New Orleans Saints -- who will be the opponent in the NFC championship here Sunday.

“It wasn’t pretty, and they got some yards on us,” Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. “We got the win. In the playoffs, that’s all that matters.”

Added middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who lived through the last two Soldier Field playoff exits in the 2001 and 2005 seasons: “We’re not where we want to be yet. But we’re over the hump in this aspect that we won a first-round playoff game, we’re on to the NFC championship.”

What do we make of them, and of all this?

It’s hard to grab and cuddle these Bears. Just when you want to celebrate the fact that the game-winning field goal five minutes into overtime was made by a guy who not long ago was working in construction, you’re reminded that a crucial sack near the end of regulation was made by a man who one month ago was arrested on charges of illegal firearm possession.

The feel-good quote from kicker Robbie Gould: “A year ago I’m pounding nails. Now I’m hitting game-winning kicks and going to the NFC championship game.”

The say-what quote from defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, on defensive lineman Tank Johnson: “This is a guy that everybody’s pulling for. Because the guys love him. He’s a great young man, and the guys in this locker room love him.”

Johnson, you’ll recall, has been arrested three times since joining the Bears. He has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor weapons charges stemming from a police raid on his home on Dec. 14. In November 2005, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor handgun possession charge, and in February 2006 he was arrested at a nightclub on suspicion of assault and resisting arrest, although the February charges were dropped.

All was forgiven in Chicago when Johnson sacked Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck beyond field-goal range near the end of regulation. Surprisingly, Bears Coach Lovie Smith then called timeout with two seconds remaining, hoping to force the Seahawks into punting to the dangerous Devin Hester but instead giving them a chance to try a Hail Mary pass that Hasselbeck wound up throwing away.

“That was not a good play on my part,” Smith said.

Many in Chicago have thought Smith’s decision to stick with quarterback Rex Grossman through his ups and downs this season to be, as TV’s Jack Bauer would say, not the right play.

Sunday’s game was like a summary of Grossman’s season to date: It started off well, had some rough moments, but had a good ending.

“He led us to our 14th win,” Smith summarized, echoing his standard line in defense of Grossman.

Grossman had a 153.3 quarterback rating early in the second quarter, right after his 68-yard, on-the-money touchdown pass to Bernard Berrian.

He also fumbled when chased down by Seattle’s Julian Peterson. Grossman threw several passes slightly behind his receivers, but they didn’t make any great plays that could have made him look better.

But on third and 10 in overtime, Grossman connected with Rashied Davis for a 30-yard gain, the key play to set up Gould’s big field goal.

“I’ve learned that [Grossman] knows how to bounce back from tough situations,” Smith said. “He’s been roasted the past couple of weeks over all different kinds of things. He is our quarterback.”

At least Grossman showed he hasn’t lost his sense of humor. When asked how long these two weeks of scrutiny had been for him he said, “It was, um, 14 days.”

Grossman beat Hasselbeck on Sunday. He’d have to outperform Drew Brees and Tom Brady or Peyton Manning to win it all, which doesn’t seem likely.

That’s one of the many questions remaining about these Bears. At least they don’t have to answer some of the nagging ones that had built up over the years of playoff futility and were almost impossible to escape.

“You get on the Internet, the first thing on MSN you see right there is, ‘Can the Bears win this time?’ ” defensive lineman Alex Brown said. “It’s hard. But you’ve got to focus. This is our job. This is what we do.”

They get to do it again Sunday, which is the one thing we know for sure about them right now.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.