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Special teams, Hester's opportunities again are the X-factor - Chicago Sun-Times
The Green Bay Packers are as determined to keep Devin Hester from beating them as Hester is to pull off the trick. Hester has the ability to take over Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field, but sadly, Green Bay will have a say in whether he gets the chance. Odds are they won’t give him an opportunity.
‘‘[Seattle coach] Pete Carroll said they were going to kick to me, but unfortunately they didn’t,’’ Hester said with a weak smile. ‘‘It’s been happening for a while, so I don’t know what [Green Bay] will do.’’
Sky punts make sense
It’s fun, at least for a team like the Bears, to imagine an NFL in which teams were forced to punt inbounds. It’s one of the most exciting plays in football, especially for a team with a player like Hester. Teams give up field position if they kick off out of bounds, but working the sidelines in the punting game is not only allowed, it’s encouraged.
And that has been one of the strategies used against Hester all year. Last week, Seattle changed up a bit and concentrated on sky punts, trying to force Hester into a fair catch. Hester is better as a natural return man than a decision maker, and the idea is to make him field the ball on a fair catch. On one such play against Seattle, he collapsed to the ground after catching the ball. His only good return came when the Seahawks tried to pin him on the sideline. They would have preferred to kick out of bounds, but that’s not always the easiest thing to do at windy Soldier Field.
That’s why sky punts make sense, especially when coupled with a rugby-style kick that features the nose of the ball down on contact to create an end-over-end effect that is harder to read and field.
‘‘Seattle’s idea was to get as much hang-time as possible,’’ special teams coordinator Dave Toub said. ‘‘[Green Bay] might try the same thing because Seattle had success, no doubt about it.’’
Green Bay special teams coach Shawn Slocum said it takes a village to stop Hester, including an excellent day by the punter.
‘‘We had two — actually four — punts inside the 20, I guess, and two of them were inside the 5,’’ Slocum said. ‘‘That was really good production. The objective, when you’ve got a guy who can change the game the way Devin can do that, is you’ve got to limit, No. 1, the space that he has to operate in and, No. 2, limit the total number of return opportunities.’’