Bears vs. Raiders Preview

Today is the day the Bears play their first game this season without Jay Cutler as the starting quarterback. After injuring his thumb last week, Cutler had successful surgery and hopes to be back by the end of the regular season. Until that happens, it's Caleb Hanie time. Caleb Hanie is no stranger to being forced into games after a Jay Cutler injury, as he had to take over after Todd Collins took over for Cutler after he hurt his knee in the NFC Championship game. In that game, he threw for two touchdowns and threw two interceptions.

That seems to be the problem with Hanie. He likes to turn the ball over. This was a problem in the NFC Championship game and will be a problem for the rest of the season if Hanie continues to have trouble with turnovers. Mike Martz believes that Hanie will be able to lead the Bears to the playoffs saying that "He's a starting QB in the NFL" and that "He is capable of running the Bears offense."

Hanie is going to be filling in for the most important position in the offense, but he won't be the only player that needs to have a good game in order to get a win. Matt Forte has to have a good game and help carry the offense so that Hanie doesn't have to do as much as Cutler does. It will be important to establish the run so that the Bears can run play action and give Hanie some time. If Forte has a good game, I can almost guarantee that the Bears will win. The Raiders know that the Bears are going to try to run the ball a lot, but Forte has to have a good game regardless.

Devin Hester did not practice all week, but Lovie Smith said that he only held him out of practice so that he would be ready to play the game. If he plays, he could be a game-changer. With Cutler gone, the special teams has to be even better than it has been in the previous games this season. A Devin Hester return for a touchdown would definitely help the Bears win this game.

The final part of the team that has to play really well is the defense. Ever since the first Lions game, the defense has become much better. They studied film and realized what they were doing wrong. They're back to being a dominate defense like they were last year, but in order to finish out this season really well without Cutler they have to be even better than the defense was last year. Every player has to be on top of his game and the safeties need to make sure that they don't give up any big plays like they did against the Lions. The Raiders' speediest receivers are injured, which should help the Bears, but the defense still needs to step it up.

The Raiders are one of the two most challenging teams that the Bears will face to finish out this season. The problem is that this is the first game the Bears have without Cutler and nobody has a clue how well Hanie will play. Hanie could be amazing and the Bears could blow out the Raiders, or Hanie could be terrible and the Bears either lose or barely win only because the rest of the team plays so well. If the Bears could postpone this game for later in the season, that would be a lot better. I have no idea whether or not the Bears will win this game. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.