Bears Lose

Caleb Hanie played a horrible first half, but settled in and played a solid second half and nearly pulled out a win. His inexperience showed with 3 first half interceptions. His first one was a bad throw that he should have thrown out of bounds. His second just soared on him but it wasn't a bad decision. His last one was just plain awful. The Bears D had kept them in the game and Hanie had gotten the Bears to the Oakland 6 yard line. There was 35 seconds left, the Bears were second and 1 yard, the clock was stopped, and the Bears were trailing 9-7. Mike Martz called a play action sprint out to the right with a throw back to the tight end on the left. Hanie got out the right and just turned and flipped the ball to the left without looking. The Raiders intercepted it and ended up kicking a field goal to end the half. Terrible play by Hanie.

I would have run the ball three straight times - the Bears were able to open up some holes and had some success. The Bears could have taken the lead 14-9 at the half - at the least it should have been 10-9 Bears, but a questionable play call and even worse execution blew that up.

All that said, the Bears had a chance to beat a solid Raider team on the road - they just didn't. I fell pretty comfortable with Hanie and as long as he beats KC this week in Chicago, things should be fine. I expect to see Orton at QB this week, but the Bears seem to be the better team.