The Chicago Bears hope backup quarterback Caleb Hanie can do the job when he fills in for injured Jay Cutler Sunday in Oakland, but they’re not going to rely on Hanie to carry the load.

Instead, they are looking for big contributions from their defense and special teams as Hanie tries to get acclimated to the offense.

“Caleb knows the offense, he’s been around here for three years now behind Jay,” linebacker Brian Urlacher said. “And we know what we can do, that’s for sure. We’ve seen what we can do on special teams and defense, just get takeaways and score touchdowns if we have to.”

The defense’s job today is pretty focused, as the Raiders come in as one of the best running teams in the league. Plus they could be without their top three wide receivers, including Darrius Heyward-Bey, who is questionable with a neck injury. With Carson Palmer still relatively new at quarterback for Oakland, the Raiders may be even more inclined to emphasize the run.

“This is a really outstanding running football team. The backs, the big offensive line … We’re expecting a lot of that,” Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “You’ve got to hang your hat on one thing, and we have to get the run stopped. And they’re good at it.”

The Raiders are guided by Palmer, but are charged by their running backs. Darren McFadden was leading the league in rushing much of the first half of the season before missing the past three weeks with a foot injury. The Raiders have not missed a step, however, as Michael Bush has stepped in and kept the offense moving.

“He’s so clutch,” Marinelli said about Bush. “He’s a downhill player, he’s physical. It’s what they want. He’s a big back, a physical back, and the offense is geared around him.

“All the powers, and all the counters. It’s a downhill offense, and it starts with him.”

McFadden had 614 yards rushing and 154 receiving before giving way to Bush, who has now rushed for over 96 yards in each of the past four games. Still, the Bears’ defense held the Chargers’ Ryan Mathews to 37 yards; ground the Lions’ entire rushing attack to 80 yards on Nov. 13; and held Philly’s LeSean McCoy to 71 yards one week after stuffing the Bucs for just 30 yards on Oct. 26.

They have been good; today they may need to be better.

“I think we’ve all got to step it up. It’s November, and everybody is pushing for the playoffs,” defensive tackle Anthony Adams said. “We’re in a tight, tight race right now, so regardless of our situation, we all have to step it up anyways.”

Bears reporter Jay Taft can be reached at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.

The Chicago Bears aren’t sure which team they’re going to face in their game against Tampa Bay in London today: The Buccaneers that were swallowed up by San Francisco 48-3 on Oct. 9 or the ones that took down New Orleans 26-20 last weekend.

But then again, Bear fans aren’t sure which team they’re going to get, either: The Chicago team that got handled by the Saints, Packers and Lions, or the one that thumped Carolina and Minnesota in two of the past three games.

“We’re in the same boat. We’re up and down as well, and both teams have to travel a long distance and get ready to play a game in an atmosphere that’s going to be a little bit difference,” Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said. “Whoever prepares the best and executes is going to win this one.”

Cutler is 13th in the league in passing yards (1,476) and has eight touchdowns with just four interceptions. He has three TDs and no interceptions the past two games, and has been sacked just five times the past three outings. The Bears offense (377 total yards) and defense (286 yards and 10 points allowed) really came together the last time they played.

“ We have to go out there to London,” Bears center Roberto Garza said, “and continue to build on what we did last week.”

Quarterback Josh Freeman and the Bucs are aiming to do the same. The Bears don’t expect to see the same kind of Bucs team that got drubbed by the 49ers on a short week. They’ve prepared to face the Bucs’ team that pulled out to a 20-7 lead last Sunday against the Saints and held on to beat a team that crushed the Bears 30-13.

“San Francisco got after them, but besides that they’ve played good football throughout. You can have games like that where you just don’t know what happened. That’s not the team we’ve seen the majority of the year,” Bears head coach Lovie Smith said. “We’re expecting to get their best. We’re expecting to get the team that beat New Orleans last week.”

Freeman (1,459 passing yards with five TDs and six interceptions) lifted the Bucs offense with 303 yards passing and two TDs last week, and he’s provided Tampa Bay with a QB who can beat you with his arm or his legs.

“He seems very, very cool back there, and he just moves away from pressure,” Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “So we’ve got our hands full again. He’s a very good athlete.”

Tampa Bay’s rookie running back LeGarrette Blount (328 yards and three TDs) is doubtful after not practicing all week and the Bears are preparing to face either him or Ernest Graham (193 yards rushing). But either way they are preparing to stuff the Bucs’ rushing attack the way they did to Minnesota last week. Adrian Peterson gained just 39 yards on the ground.

“When you hold a running back like Adrian Peterson to 39 yards, that’s something we need to continue,” Bears linebacker Lance Briggs said. “We need to show some consistency. When we show some consistency, we can say we’re a defense that’s consistently helping its team to win.”

Bears reporter Jay Taft can be reached at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP)—Jay Cutler(notes) acknowledges there are times he feels
pressure that really isn’t there.

Maybe that explains why the Chicago Bears quarterback was out of sync
against Green Bay last week even though he had enough protection after getting
knocked around in the previous game.

He misfired, overthrowing receivers and getting picked off twice while
completing 21 of 37 passes for 302 yards in a 27-17 loss. It didn’t matter that
he went from taking six sacks a week earlier at New Orleans to three against the
Packers.

“Whenever you’re getting a lot of pressure and you’re getting flushed and
you’re getting hit a lot, that clock in your head is going to be tinkered a
little bit,” Cutler said Wednesday. “It’s going to start ticking a little bit
faster. Even sometimes when you do have a good amount of time, you’re going to
be feeling it even if it’s not there. So it’s a constant battle. The more
consistent we get up front and the more time I have, and the more comfortable I
feel, the more consistent I’m going to get.”

No quarterback has taken a bigger beating than Cutler the past two years,
and no offensive line has been more maligned than Chicago’s. It was the team’s
biggest question mark coming into the season, and the Bears are not getting the
answers they were seeking from a unit that ranks 31st heading into Sunday’s game
against Carolina.

All five starters are in positions they haven’t played much in the past,
with Roberto Garza(notes) moving from guard to center to replace the departed Olin
Kreutz(notes), and they’re short-handed on the right side.

Guard Lance Louis(notes) has missed two games because of an ankle injury and tackle
Gabe Carimi(notes) (knee), their first-round pick, is out indefinitely. Newcomer Chris
Spencer(notes) and Frank Omiyale(notes) started in their place last week, but the way line
coach Mike Tice sees it, the unfamiliarity and health are non-factors.

“I still feel we’re eight deep. We have guys that have won games before in
this league,” he said. “We went to the (conference) championship game with
Frank Omiyale. Chris Spencer is a first-round pick who’s played a lot of
football for the Seattle Seahawks. That means nothing to me. That’s looking for
an excuse or an out. I don’t accept that, and I don’t think any of my guys are
saying that, either.”

Bottom line, though, is there are issues.

While the pass protection improved, the run-blocking has been non-existent,
and that goes a long way toward explaining why the Bears wound up with just 13
yards rushing, third fewest in franchise history, on 12 attempts against Green
Bay.

They wound up calling 43 passes and nine runs compared to 52 and 11 in a
loss to the Saints. But unlike the New Orleans game, coach Lovie Smith had no
issue with the balance.

Execution was the problem. Tice said blockers were “overshooting the pull”
and “hanging too long on the three-technique.”

“We’ve got to clean all that up,” he said.

It might help, too, if the Bears called for more handoffs. Tice said it’s
“always harder” to open holes when the offense is consistently in a pass mode.

“At the same time, the linemen are paid to execute the plays that are
called,” he said.

At least the blockers gave Cutler enough time. That the Bears couldn’t take
advantage is another issue.

If Cutler was a bit jittery, it was easy to see why.

That pounding he took against New Orleans resembled some of the beatings he
absorbed last season, when he got sacked a league-leading 52 times in 15 games.
His completion percentage is at 54.4 percent, about seven points below his
career average, partly because he’s rushing.

“I think all quarterbacks go through that, to some extent,” offensive
coordinator Mike Martz said. “I think we looked at the tape. He was very
pleased with the protection. That goes away, real quick. And he’s very confident
with where we’re going with that thing, and we all are. We’re excited about that
part of it, to be honest with you and where we’re headed. Last year, at this
time, I was scared to death of our protections.”

LAKE FOREST — The Chicago Bears steamrolled Atlanta 30-12 in the season opener, and managed to convert 38 percent (6-for-16) of their third downs.

They have struggled on third downs the past two weeks, however, and in turn have struggled to find another win as well.

“We’ve got to convert on third down; it’s that’s simple,” quarterback Jay Cutler said. “It all changes if we’re converting third downs.”

The Bears are 11-for-40 (27.5 percent) on third-down conversions this season, but are 5-for-24 (21 percent) in their back-to-back losses, as well as 0-for-2 on fourth downs. They have come to the conclusion that the reason they are having so much trouble on third down is because things aren’t going as planned on first and second downs.

“Those third-and-longs, at the end of the day, we’re not going to be able to convert a high rate of those,” Cutler said. “So first and second down is the key. We need to get enough yards to put us in position to be successful on third down and keep the chains moving, keep the clock moving and keep our defense off the field.”

The Bears had third and less than seven only one time last weekend against Green Bay, and they converted that one.

They had more third-and-10-plus situations (seven) than any other distance, and were 0-for-7 on those. In fact, the 2011 Bears are 1-for-19 on third down and anything over nine yards, and are 5-for-29 on anything over six.

So clearly, their problems on third down relate directly to what they’re doing — or not doing — on first and second down.

“If you put yourself in a manageable third down, if you’re taking care of your first and second down, then you don’t have that burden of having as many problems to deal with on third-and-long,” wideout Dane Sanzenbacher said. “We just need to get some things cleaned up, establish our running game more, and I guarantee that will help those third downs.”

A big part of the problem has been Chicago’s inability to run. The Bears have just three rushing first downs the past two games, and no rushing touchdowns all year. After gaining just 73 yards on the ground in Weeks 2 and 3 combined, they know it’s about time to get that part of their game going again.

“Third downs are always the key. It keeps us on the field, and it keeps our defense off it,” tackle Frank Omiyale said. “We know we need to run the ball better … We really want to keep our defense fresh so they can go out there and do what they do best. It’s always a key. It’s always a goal.”

Bears center Roberto Garza doesn’t care how they do it, he just wants to see his team stay on the field longer than it has. Because of their third-down issues, the Bears have come up on the wrong end of the time-of-possession stat badly (73:43-46:17) the past two games.

“We have to step up and convert. We have to find a way,” Garza said. “When you dig yourselves those holes, you’ve got to dig yourselves out of it.”

They are taking aim at Carolina as their way out of that hole.

“We’re expecting big changes,” Omiyale said, “and we’re expecting them this week.”

Reach staff reporter Jay Taft at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.