Nov. 21--How funny that the last time the Bears played the Broncos, the focus also centered on a backup quarterback pressed into a starting role by the visiting team sorely in need of a victory.
His name was Caleb Hanie and the memory of the Bears' 13-10 overtime loss to the Broncos and quarterback Tim Tebow on Dec. 12, 2011, remains as vexing as it is vivid. Coach John Fox's Broncos improbably erased a 10-0 deficit in the final 2 minutes 8 seconds, capitalizing on a Marion Barber fumble and getting a 59-yard Matt Prater field goal on the last snap of regulation. Hanie only made one more start for the Bears after going 12 of 19 for 115 yards in that loss, one of five straight demoralizing defeats after Jay Cutler's thumb injury in Week 11.
"I always tell people if that game goes any different, I might still be in Chicago," said Hanie, a Bears backup from 2009-11 who spent 2012 with the Broncos. "It's the kind of loss you can talk about to your kids one day because you'll always remember getting 'Tebowed.' "
Nobody knows how memorable Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler's first NFL start against the Bears in place of the injured Peyton Manning will be Sunday at Soldier Field, but Hanie possesses a rare perspective on the prospects. The teams have something in common other than believing they are better off with Fox on the Bears sidelines. Both once employed Hanie as a backup quarterback too.
After the Bears released Hanie in the winter of 2012, he signed with the Broncos the day after they traded Tebow. At training camp that summer, Hanie befriended the Broncos' ballyhooed 6-foot-8-inch, second-round draft pick who competed with him to be the No. 2 quarterback behind Manning.
"Brock's from Montana, acts like a California dude and he played at Arizona State, so he's kind of a confusing personality," Hanie said, chuckling. "What surprised me about him coming in was he came off as laid-back, like, 'Oh, dude, I'm going to go out and catch some waves.' But his professionalism was ahead of his time. As a rookie, he worked extra every day to learn what he could so it doesn't surprise me he stuck around to be in this position."
If the Bears pass rush has its way, Osweiler will spend most of the day in the supine position. Expect defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to test just how much Osweiler has learned as Manning's understudy, assuming the Bears can stop a Broncos running game stuck in neutral and make the offense one-dimensional. Hanie saw enough of Osweiler up close to think it would be a mistake to assume his inexperience will lead to ineffectiveness.
"I anticipate Brock making good decisions, hanging on to the football and not being scared to throw it down the field a little bit," Hanie said. "I think you'll see a conservative guy early, like he played at Arizona State with all those short passes. But he does have the arm strength to spread it out. He might run the ball too because he's athletic for a guy 6-8, 240. He's ready for this -- he had the best training possible."
His tutelage included three years under Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase, who Hanie recalled was obsessive over details as Broncos quarterbacks coach. Nobody spent more time watching videotape or finding holes in defenses. But the way Gase always balanced his demanding approach in Denver with a sarcastic sense of humor made it easy for Hanie to predict he would have a positive impact on Cutler with the Bears.
"Perfect fit -- their personalities are so similar," said Hanie, who maintains a friendship with Cutler and coached with him at the Jim Harbaugh camp in Ann Arbor in the summer. "Oddly enough, Gase is a (Mike) Martz product and it's funny how things worked out because Mike and Jay's relationship wasn't awesome. But Adam learned the game so well from (Martz) and other offensive guys that he knows to play to guys' strengths."
Retired since 2014, Hanie closely follows his former teams from his home near Dallas, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He and former Bears linebacker Joey LaRocque run a growing business, RockSolid, that sells soft-shell helmets used for offseason, "non-contact" football workouts intended to make the game safer. Besides the close connections to Sunday's quarterbacks, Hanie played for Fox and knows Broncos coach Gary Kubiak well because Kubiak's sons, Klint and Klay, were Hanie's college teammates at Colorado State. Hanie attended the weddings of both Kubiak sons.
"It really is an odd game for me," Hanie said.
Not as odd as it will feel for his old buddy Osweiler, who after 57 career games of watching from the sidelines will take the first offensive snap for the Broncos.
"Brock will make a couple of jittery mistakes at first, but he's a pretty mature kid and he'll take the reins and fill in well," Hanie said. "Backups are kind of expected to approach it like, don't make mistakes and you'll be fine. But it doesn't really work like that. You still have to make the throws. ... The backup quarterback position is harder than people think."
Chicago remembers all too well.
dhaugh@tribpub.com
