Devin Hester continues to generate explosive plays

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Bears struggled mightily in virtually all areas in Sunday’s blowout loss to the New England Patriots at Soldier Field, but there was one notable exception.

As they’ve done all season, Devin Hester and Danieal Manning once again provided explosive plays on special teams. Hester’s 61-yard kickoff return to the New England 35 set up the Bears’ only touchdown, while Manning averaged 31 yards on four kickoff returns with a long of 40 yards.

“Danieal and Devin have been outstanding on kick returns,” said special teams coordinator Dave Toub. “I’m not sure if they’re competing against each other. But it seems like each time a guy gets in there, they continue to better themselves, which in turn helps our team. We had some good returns in the last game.”

Hester has reverted this year to the All-Pro form he displayed in his first two NFL seasons. He set a league record with five kick return touchdowns as a rookie in 2006 and then eclipsed the mark with six in 2007. With two TD returns this season—both on punts—Hester has tied the all-time NFL record with 13.

“It’s scary every time Devin touches the ball,” Toub said. “It’s the old Devin. What we’re trying to do is just get him in situations where he can get the ball in his hands.”

Hester ranks second in the NFL in punt returns with a 15.1-yard average and would be leading the league in kickoff returns with his 30.8-yard average, but he doesn’t have enough returns to qualify.

Manning (4), Hester (3) and Knox (1) have combined for eight kickoff returns of 40 yards or more this season, giving the Bears the most in the NFL. Seattle is second with seven, all by Leon Washington.

With Knox playing virtually every snap on offense—he’s leading the Bears in receiving with 45 catches for 790 yards—Hester and Manning have been splitting the kickoff return duties.

“Once the game is going, we go with the hot hand,” Toub said. “Also, we’ll see if Danieal is fresh or not. Sometimes Danieal is due to go, but they’ve had a long drive on defense and he’s tired, so we go to Devin. Sometimes we’ll start a game with a particular returner just because of the game plan situation.

“We want to see sometimes how they’re going to react to Danieal or react to Devin, so we’ll start with different guys. We don’t want to get into a specific pattern where we do the same thing over and over.”

Hester and Manning have both benefited from excellent blocking this season. Teammates who’ve contributed on the return teams include Zack Bowman, Kellen Davis, Rashied Davis, Corey Graham, Brian Iwuh, Nick Roach, Rod Wilson and Garrett Wolfe.

“We’re fortunate we have the same guys back there,” Toub said. “They’ve been working together for a long time. It’s like an offensive play. Everybody’s got to be on the same page. If one guy doesn’t do his job, it doesn’t work.”

As the Bears prepare for Monday night’s game in Minnesota, they’re hoping to repeat the success they had in a 27-13 win over the Vikings Nov. 14 at Soldier Field.

In that contest, Hester had kickoff returns of 68 and 32 yards as well as a 42-yard punt return that nearly equaled the return yardage the Vikings had yielded (a league-best 45 yards on 36 punts) in their first eight games of the season.

“We were fortunate we had a good day,” Toub said. “It doesn’t always happen like that. A lot of things have to happen right when you’re playing a good coverage unit. We’ll have our hands full Monday.”

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(chicagobears.com)