LAKE FOREST, Ill. – When Bears safety Mike Brown cautions that the Lions are a dangerous team despite their 0-7 record, he isn’t just blowing smoke. He’s speaking from experience.

In Brown’s second NFL season in 2001, the Bears took an 8-2 mark into a home game against an 0-10 Lions team and had to rally from a 10-3 fourth-quarter deficit to escape with a 13-10 win.

Mike Brown generated a key takeaway in the Bears' 13-10 win over the Lions in 2001 when he forced and recovered a fumble while sacking Mike McMahon.

The Bears didn’t secure the victory until Jason Hanson missed his third field goal attempt of the game, a 40-yarder, with :21 remaining in the fourth quarter. On that day, Detroit became the first team in NFL history to lose eight straight games by eight points or less.

Fast forward seven years and the Lions are in a similar position. In their last three games, they lost to the Vikings 12-10 on a field goal with :09 to play and had a chance to tie on their final possession in defeats of 28-21 to the Texans and 25-17 to the Redskins.

“They’ve been in pretty much every game,” Brown said. “There’s been a couple of them where they weren’t in them, but everyone understands that this is a professional football league and honestly any team can beat any team on any given day. That’s just part of how the league is set up, so we’re going to be prepared to play them and we want to come out with a victory.”

The Bears insist that the Lions aren’t the same team they drubbed 34-7 at Ford Field on Oct. 5. Since that game, Detroit has new starters at quarterback (Dan Orlovsky for Jon Kitna), running back (Rudi Johnson for Kevin Smith) and wide receiver (Shaun McDonald for Roy Williams).

“They are a much improved ballclub since we played them last,” said coach Lovie Smith. “The Washington Redskins are a pretty good football team. Except for a few big plays, Detroit gave them everything they wanted [on Sunday].”

In the Bears' win in Detroit this season, Kyle Orton established career highs with 24 completions, 334 yards and a 121.4 passer rating while tossing two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Defensively, Chicago scored a touchdown on Charles Tillman’s 26-yard interception return, registered four sacks and held the Lions to 185 total yards, including just 67 in the first half.

“If we expect it to be like last time, we won’t win,” said defensive end Alex Brown. “We’ve got to understand that they’re going to be hungry to come in here and beat us. We’ve got to come ready to play.”

“Every team we play has an opportunity to be good,” said cornerback Nate Vasher, who hopes to play Sunday after missing three games with a wrist injury. “We don’t really go by a team’s record. Detroit has played a lot of teams close but hasn’t been able to close it out.”

The Bears are preparing for their second of three straight home games and the second in a stretch of four of six contests against NFC North opponents. Chicago (4-3) is tied for first place atop the division with the Packers (4-3), who visit the undefeated Titans (7-0) on Sunday.

“I think football really begins when you get to November,” Smith said. “That’s when the separation really begins, and we want to be one of those teams that is contending in the end.”

In addition to their 2001 game against the Lions, there’s been only one other time since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 that the Bears faced a team with a worse record than 0-7.

That occurred on Dec. 4, 1977 in Tampa when the Bears battled a Buccaneers team that was seeking its first win in franchise history after 25 losses. Tampa Bay had stumbled to a 0-14 record as an expansion club in 1976 and was 0-11 entering its home game against Chicago.

The Bears won 10-0, but it wasn’t easy. The game was scoreless until early in the fourth quarter when Gary Fencik’s 10-yard interception return to the Tampa Bay 23 set up Bob Thomas’ 32-yard field goal. Walter Payton’s 3-yard touchdown run later made it 10-0 after Bob Parsons completed a 32-yard pass to Steve Schubert on a fake punt.

The win was the fourth of six straight to end the season for the Bears, who rebounded from a 3-5 start to earn a wildcard berth with a 9-5 record under coach Jack Pardee. The Buccaneers ended their 26-game skid the following week when they defeated the Saints 33-14 at the Louisiana Superdome.

Roster move: The Bears on Tuesday signed fullback Jed Collins to their practice squad. The undrafted rookie free agent from Washington State spent the first seven weeks of the regular season on the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad before being released Oct. 21. Collins replaces fullback Jason Davis, who was signed to the Oakland Raiders’ 53-man roster earlier Tuesday.