Smith was fortunate that the Bears corner slipped or fell down on two of his tds and the third came because two Bears hit him from opposite sides allowing him to stay upright and make the catch. A rookie was used because of injuries. There was no one else available.
That was the case with Orton too. Given his inexperience I admired his performance.
If the Bears defense plays like it did in September NO won't stand a chance but I don't think any other team would either. I don't think it can play up to that level given the absence of Tommie Harris but think it will play well enough to win IF the Bears have no more than two turnovers.
They had two Sunday against a more experienced team than the Saints.
The problem wasn't necessarily that they used a rookie, the problem was that they used just a rookie. Due to injuries and the depth chart by that point last year's Panthers had a very 1 dimensional offense, that dimension was Smith. The Seahawks killed the Panthers the next week by triple covering Smith and daring them to find another way to move the ball.
It's going to depend on a couple of things. If the weather manages to slow NO down the Bears will win, if the Bears figue out what's been going on and get their defense back in line they'll win, if Rex has another game like the bad 5 the Bears are hosed.