Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith doesn’t bother concerning himself with the future.

In a conference call earlier today, he said he prefers to stay focused on the here and now.

This Sunday, Smith’s team travels to Denver to take on the Broncos and quarterback Tim Tebow, who’s helped string together five straight victories.

And at the moment, Smith has been impressed with what Tebow’s brought to the Denver offense.

“He’s leading his team to victories,” Smith said of Tebow. “When you’re the starting quarterback in the NFL and you’ve led your team to five wins in a row, you’re doing something pretty good. From what I’ve seen, people tend to keep looking a year down the way, two years down the way. They ought to just live in the moment.”

“I see someone that is getting it right now.”

Smith was particularly impressed with the growth Tebow displayed during his most recent performance in Minnesota, where he completed 10-of-15 passes and connected with Demaryius Thomas for two touchdowns.

“I’ve seen each week a guy moving maybe away from some of the option things that he was doing earlier and this past week against Minnesota, I saw an NFL attack, offensive attack, moving the ball up and down the field,” Smith said. “Tim Tebow was leading that, throwing. I think there were only 15 passes, but they were effective.”

As for the Bears, Smith has his own young quarterback who’s been under the microscope as of late.

With quarterback Jay Cutler out with a thumb injury and running back Matt Forte out with a knee injury, Caleb Hanie has taken control of the offense.

Chicago lost to Oakland and Kansas City with Hanie starting, and the former Colorado State quarterback tossed three interceptions in each of those outings.

“Like they say, as a quarterback, you’ve got to have a short memory, so just because I’ve had some interceptions over the last two games, it doesn’t mean that’s what type of quarterback I am,” Hanie said in a conference call. “I’ve just got to get through that and make the plays that need to be made.”

“Our football team hasn’t played as well as it needs to the last couple weeks. Caleb has been a part of that,” Smith said. “Last week (against Kansas City), I didn’t see progress that we made from Caleb or our football team. We had opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them. We lost a tough game at home, but we still have faith in Caleb like we do with the rest of our team.”

Tags: Caleb Hanie, Chicago Bears, Lovie Smith, Tim Tebow, Week 14

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