As Ryan pointed out this morning, the Bears are currently wrestling with whether or not they should pay Kyle Orton long-term money. After all, he did take a while to steal the starting job away from Rex Grossman. (Although, really, can’t we fault the Bears for that as well?) Sure, it would be somewhat risky, but then again, Orton is kind of playing out of his mind this year.

And as MDS pointed out at FanHouse today, he was actually better than most of us realized — or the stats said — during Sunday’s win against the Vikings.

Marty Booker dropped what should have been a 14-yard touchdown pass at the start of the second quarter. He also dropped what should have been a 24-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter. And Desmond Clark fumbled what should have been a 36-yard touchdown pass at the 1-yard line.

So what would Orton’s numbers have looked like if his receivers had held onto the ball on those three plays? He would have had two more completions, 39 more yards and three more touchdowns, meaning he would have gone 23 of 32 for 322 yards, with five touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a passer rating of 143.5, which would have been the best passer rating in the NFL on the week.

So, yeah, that’s right Chicago front office. Your boy — against the in-division and stout-defensively Vikings no less — was basically the best quarterback in the NFL on Sunday. If, you know, you had the smarts to surround him with some people that could catch the ball.

Seriously though, that might be the biggest testament to Orton’s success; he’s not balling it up with anyone that remotely resembles a talented receiver, yet people keep discussing how they have stepped up. Have they? Or is Orton just making them great?

And yeah, I’m all over this bandwagon. Now the Bears just need to actually get aboard too.