Chicago Bears’ Caleb Hanie’s 15 minutes of fame should last longer
The Chicago Bears are probably broken up after Sunday’s National Football Conference Championship game loss to the Green Bay Packers. Being defeated means their archrivals go to the Super Bowl while they watch from home. Any team
that can get as close to the Super Bowl as the Bears got, and then fail would feel a slight sting. Each player feels the disappointment in a slightly different manner.
Quarterback Jay Cutler is probably disappointed that he couldn’t play well or even finish the most important game of the season against a team that the Bears fans wanted to see defeated at Soldier Field. His Backup Todd Collins
is probably disappointed that he missed the opportunity to end his 16-year career on a high and give the Bears a win they needed. Matt Forte fought his heart out for the Bears and put one heck of a show but was still unable to take the Bears to the Super Bowl.
Third-string QB Caleb Hanie has his own reasons to be disappointed. His literal and figurative 15 minutes of fame in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game could have put the unknown backup on the map. He came so close to undoing
a beating of the first 3 quarters in the final quarter.
The Packers led 14-0 when Hanie came on. First thing he did was cut Green Bay’s lead in half with a quick touchdown. He was all set to take the game into overtime but then out of nowhere, the big B.J. Raji intercepted Hani and
scored a touchdown for the Packers.
Hanie tried to tie the scores again in the final minutes. He had rallied the Bears towards the endzone. From the 29-yard line he threw a pass towards Johnny Knox with Sam Shields covering him. Conference Championship glory or eternal
anonymity came down to that one pass for Hanie. That pass got intercepted.
Chicago’s hopes for a Super Bowl were crushed and with that ended Hanie’s 15 minutes of fame. In the final quarter, Hanie’s passer ratings were better than Collins, Cutler and even Aaron Rodgers. He threw the only passing touchdown
of the game. Both Rodgers and Hanie were intercepted two times on Sunday; however, the Bears weren’t able to score points off either one of Rodgers’ interceptions.
Hanie is going to be haunted by that crucial final interception but there is nothing he can do about that now. He said that despite being the third string quarterback, he had been preparing well and it didn’t make a difference
on his performance against the Packers. “Jay gets all the reps with the offense. Me and Todd, we split the scout-team reps. So last week we were splitting (snaps in) the Packers' offense.”
Hanie was disappointed at getting the opportunity but not finishing the job. “That's a good way of putting it -- kind of bittersweet.”
The 2010-11 season has ended for the Bears but Hanie might not have to go back to being a third string quarterback. He has said that he would love to get another opportunity to improve his game and play for the Bears and he might
just get it.
Chicago’s backup, Todd Collins has been just terrible. He couldn’t do worse even if he tried. He attempted 4 passes against the Packers and was unable to complete any of them. Believe it or not, that was his best performance of
the 2010-11 season. In the regular season, Collins threw 10 passes and was intercepted 5 times. He obviously didn’t score any touchdowns. His passer ratings in the regular season were an embarrassing 5.9.
Compared to the disaster that was Collins, Hanie is a Tom Brady wrapped into Peyton Manning, maxed out on steroids. Collins’ contract ends this season and the Bears would be wise not to keep him in the next season.
What they should do is bump Hanie to the backup and find another third stringer. It is possible the Bears might just do that. Coach Lovie Smith was certainly impressed by Hanie. “When you have your quarterback go down, and your
backup play in that situation, says a lot about Caleb Hanie.”
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