Caleb Hanie's Pack mentality: According to the internet Media, Maybe it's a good thing that the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers only meet in the playoffs every 70 years. These two storied franchises apparently don't bring out the best in each other - at least not in January.
Each team played one strong half of football, just not the same half. The Packers took the first, the Bears the second, and when it was all over, Green Bay had a 21-14 victory, the NFC title and a trip to the Super Bowl to face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But the Packers were nearly derailed by a 25-year-old quarterback out of Colorado State with three years of NFL experience, most of it holding a clipboard. Caleb Hanie came this close to being able to drink free in Chicago for life when he rallied the Bears to two fourth-quarter touchdowns and very nearly forced the game into overtime.
"You don't expect to play on a day like this, but that's how it goes sometimes," Hanie said.
Two interceptions, one for a touchdown by Green Bay nose tackle B.J. Raji - "one of those 'oops' type of things," Hanie said - the other on fourth and five with 47 seconds remaining, ended the Bears' hopes. Still, his performance - 13 of 20, 153 yards, a touchdown and a 65.2 rating - got him a lot of praise from both locker rooms. Hanie understood perfectly well just how unusual that is for a losing quarterback.
"Throw two picks," he said. "That's the only time you're going to get congratulations [for that], when they don't expect you to do anything."
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