Devin Hester: Bears lacked 'A' game in loss to Seahawks

Devin Hester had success against Seattle the first time the Bears played the Seahawks on Oct. 17, returning a punt 89 yards for a touchdown.

Hester considers it a win-win situation if Seahawks punter Jon Ryan kicks it either to him or short and out of bounds Sunday in their NFC playoff game at Soldier Field.

"It's always a positive," Hester said Monday at Halas Hall. "It's a positive for the offense, as well as the team. (A short punt) not only gives the offense half of the field to go ... and if you get two first downs, you're in field-goal range. It really helps out a lot and (we) continue to put points on the board."

Hester, who already owns the NFL record for most kick returns for touchdowns (14), often performs at his best on a big stage such as the playoffs. As a rookie, he returned the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl for a touchdown against the Colts.

"I'm not going to put pressure on myself like that," Hester said Monday. "I'm just going to go out and be myself and whenever I get my opportunities, try to make the best of it."

Asked if he was surprised to see the 8-9 Seahawks knock off the defending Super Bowl champion Saints on Saturday, Hester hesitated, then replied: "It's just the way the playoffs go. Teams fix all of their problems later on in the season. (Seattle) didn't start out really good, but now they're starting to come along and playing well. Just look at last weekend and all the points (41) they put up. Their quarterback (Matt Hasselbeck) is doing a great job over there. He is really the key asset to that game. We just have to make sure we do our part to handle our business."

Seattle upset the Bears 23-20 in Week 6 of the regular season.

"It got our attention from the first time we played them this year," Hester said. "Unfortunately, we were unable to come up with the victory, so we know that they are a great team. That game (against the Saints) doesn't surprise me at all. We know that we can't have that same mistake that we had earlier in the season.

"Every team grows as the season goes on. Teams are not on their 'A' game the first couple of weeks of the season. I can only say that we weren't up to our 'A' game. We gradually got better and still have got growing to go."

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(chicagobreakingsports.com)