Injured Cutler provides support for Hanie, teammates

Whether or not he was ”Coach Cutler” as Bears coach Lovie Smith envisioned him this week, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was all he could be Sunday — a good teammate.

Four days after surgery to repair a broken thumb on his throwing hand, Cutler was with the Bears in Oakland on Sunday. He was on the field prior to the game talking to teammates and coaches. And he helped counsel Caleb Hanie in Hanie’s first NFL start.

”He was great,” Hanie said of Cutler. ”He was with me the whole time, calming me down, helping me out as much as he could. At one point we started talking at random about something an that got my mind off things and I felt calm after that. So he was a good presence on the sideline.”