It’s okay to be confused about our Bears.

On one hand, they might be giants.

• Winners of five out of their past six games.

• Ben Johnson’s offense, even with growing pains, ranks third in the NFL in yards per game and sixth in points per game.

• Just a few weeks ago, fans wanted the Bears to trade for a running back, and yet, the run game is now averaging 144 yards a game, which ranks second in the league. Amazing.

• Dennis Allen’s defense is first in the NFL in interceptions and total turnovers. With that, the Bears lead the league in turnover margin.

The scene in Cincinnati was pure, crazy, chaotic bliss. I’ve been covering sports in my hometown of Chicago for 30 years, and outside of the Cubs’ World Series and three NBA Finals for the Bulls, the road trip to Cincy was my favorite. I’ve always heard stories about our sports fans taking over towns, but until you experience it in person, it’s hard to comprehend. With all the heartache Bears fans have experienced, the fanbase remains the best in football.

They love their team unconditionally.

Imagine what these road games will look like when the Bears are truly great.

And that begs the simple, innocent question that I’m getting a lot lately.

Are the Bears good? The best answer I can give is, I don’t know.

There are things that still bother me these days about this perfectly imperfect team. As good as Johnson is at his job, Ryan Poles is equally as bad.

Every fan knew that left tackle and edge rusher were big needs this past offseason. Guess what, they remain glaring needs. All of Poles’ candidates at tackle are now backups. The GM’s answer at edge was Dayo Odeyingbo, who was an early bust and is now out for the season. CJ Gardner-Johnson, who was acquired just last week, has as many sacks as Odeyingbo. Now, leave it to Poles to acquire a pass rusher at the NFL trade deadline with zero sacks.

The Bears’ defense ranks 29th in the league in points allowed and 26th in yards per game. All this has happened against backup quarterbacks the last two weeks in Joe Flacco and Ty Huntley. Some of the other QBs the Bears have faced are Spencer Rattler, Geno Smith, and JJ McCarthy. Not exactly a QB murderers’ row. The Bears’ thrilling comeback against the Bengals was only made possible because of their own colossal collapse.

And then there are penalties, oh, the penalties. I thought I’d seen it all until the Bears offense took a delay of game on the one-yard line. Inexcusable.

So, forgive me if I don’t flat-out say the Bears are certainly a good football team.

Yet on the bright side, we don’t have to make any grand declarations about who they are after nine weeks.

At the halfway point of the season, I do know the Bears have a superstar head coach, and several players are developing.

Johnson handed out game balls to rookies Kyle Monangai and Colston Loveland. That is a feather in the cap for Poles. Loveland is the Bears’ first rookie to win player of the week honors in nine years.

Caleb Williams bounced back with a game we all needed to see, and clearly has the big moment gene. Darnell Wright is being developed and is finally aggressively pancaking opponents like the 10th overall pick.

The offense is thriving with an inexperienced undrafted free agent at left tackle in Theo Benedet.

Winning a fifth game of the season on Nov. 2 is nothing to throw a parade over, but since 2021, the earliest the Bears have won game number five was Dec. 10.

Nine total wins is a must; 10 is now possible.

So ask me again if the Bears are good.

Winning games is good. Having hope is good.

Joyfully hugging your fellow Bears fans after one of the wildest games of your football-watching life is good.

A clear definition of good lies ahead. And that’s a good thing.

• Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the “Waddle & Silvy” show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.