Chicago Bears 2011 regular season Review: A collapse of epic proportions – NFL Special Part IV
At Oakland
A loss of their best player and star quarterback will hurt any team but for the Bears, Cutler was the cog that made the offence move and his loss dealt a heavy blow to Chicago’s hopes of making the playoffs.
With Cutler out for the rest of the season, Coach Lovie Smith gave Caleb Hanie the opportunity to make his first NFL start.
The pre-match build-up by Chicago completely focused on encouraging Hanie to perform well, with many veterans declaring their faith in the youngster’s abilities.
However, Hanie could not keep the Bears from losing out to Oakland 25-20. Sebastian Janikowski’s six field goals helped the Raiders top a struggling Chicago offence.
Hanie passed for two touchdowns for 254 yards but was picked off three times during the game.
The loss ended Chicago Bears' five-game winning run, and although not very important to the Bears' playoff hopes, the defeat still dealt a huge blow to the team’s confidence.
Against Kansas City
The Bears hoped that their loss to Raiders on the weekend was just a blip and they could easily recover against a struggling Chiefs side.
However, they did not count on Kansas City’s defence putting a spanner in their playoff dreams as the Bears were held to just a single field goal over the entire 60-minutes.
Chicago lost 10-3 to the Chiefs with Kansas City’s defence frustrating the Bears offensive line-up.
Hanie, this time could not throw a single touchdown as he covered just 133 passing yards in the game, and was again picked off three times.
This was the Bears' second straight loss and nothing but victory in the next game would help save their season.
At Denver
With victory essential for Chicago to keep their playoff dream alive, the Bears travelled to Denver Broncos who were surprising everyone with their brilliant resurgence.
The Broncos led by quarterback Tim Tebow were making headlines all over the world as Tebow mesmerised fans with a string of late victories as he rallied the Broncos to challenge for the AFC West title.
The Bears took a 10-0 lead early in the fourth quarter and in a low scoring game seemed set to end their miserable two game losing streak.
They didn’t count on Tebow time.
With just two minutes left in the game, Tebow sent a 10-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas to make it 10-7. The Bears got the next possession.
Running back Marion Barber then made the mistake of running out of bounds with just seconds to spare stopping the clock and Tebow in a brilliant drive got the Broncos inside field goal range.
Matt Prater sent a 59-yard monster kick through the prongs to tie the scores and send the game to overtime.
And Tebow time continued. Marion Barber became the villain once more as he fumbled a ball to lose possession and the Broncos quarterback again drove his team forward.
Matt Prater sent his second field goal through the prongs from 51-yards to win the game in brilliant style and the Bears could just curse their luck.
To be continued..
The views expressed in this article do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com
Tags: