OAKLAND, Calif. -- Caleb Hanie received the snap, looked right, took a couple steps back and finally spiked the ball in front of an approaching defender to stop the clock.
Too late.
With just four seconds left at the Chicago Bears' 46-yard line, officials whistled Hanie for a game-ending intentional-grounding call because of the prolonged hesitation. The fill-in quarterback put his arms in the air, unclipped his helmet straps and gingerly walked off the field to a raucous Coliseum celebration.
Hanie threw for 254 yards and three interceptions in his first career start in place of Jay Cutler, but the Bearslost 25-20 to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday after a late rally ended with a whimper.
Or, in this case, a whistle.
"It's just not a good time to have a learning experience," Hanie said.
"I came back, and I was just taking a look outside to see if they were paying attention and I spiked it," Hanie added. "We didn't have any fakes or anything on like that. That was just my fault. Six seconds or seven seconds left, I should have just got it and killed it."
Hanie struggled at the start for the Bears (7-4) while filling in for Cutler, who broke his right thumb last week during Chicago's fifth consecutive win, to put a major obstacle into what had been a promising season. Hanie, who nearly led a comeback in last season's NFC title game against the Green Bay Packers, had thrown just 14 regular-season passes since signing with Chicago as an undrafted free agent in 2008.
Hanie also threw two touchdown passes.
"You just have to build on this game and the good things that came out and learn from the mistakes," he said. "I'm confident that we can do that. I'm not worried about the outside stuff, because all the guys inside have confidence in me, and that gives me a great sense of urgency to get better quick."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
