Bears were looking ahead...

[MochaBear]

To the JETS!?!?!?!?!?

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Devin Hester won’t be the only dangerous return man on the field Sunday when the Bears battle the New York Jets at the Meadowlands.

The Jets’ Justin Miller leads the NFL in kickoff returns with a 30.1-yard average and 2 touchdowns. The second-year cornerback from Clemson has scored on returns of 103 yards against Indianapolis and 99 yards versus Cleveland.

“He’s very good,” said Bears special teams coordinator Dave Toub. “He’s strong. He’s got vision. He was really good in college. We had him rated really high coming out a few years ago. We’ve got our hands full there. He’s playing with a lot of confidence and is a very strong returner.”

The Bears’ kickoff coverage team has not allowed a return of more than 33 yards this season and has made an NFL-high 12 tackles inside the 20-yard line. The unit ranks 11th in the league with opponents beginning drives following kickoffs on average at the 25.4-yard line.

“We’ve got to do what we do,” Toub said. “We have to be sound. We have to stay in our lanes. We have to be physical. We have to get off blocks and we have to swarm. That’s the main thing that we’re emphasizing this week is swarming to the ball.”

Brendon Ayanbadejo and Adrian Peterson share the Bears lead with 16 special-teams tackles. Cameron Worrell is third with 14, followed by Todd Johnson and Leon Joe with 10 apiece.

Staying put: Hester is a threat to go the distance each time he touches the ball, but the Bears feel that the rookie already has too much on his plate to incorporate him into this offense this season.

Last season at the University of Miami, Hester was shuffled around between cornerback, receiver and running back while also returning punts and kickoffs.

“It’s tempting when you see what he does with the football,” said coach Lovie Smith. “You can say that it’s tempting to put him at running back, wide receiver, a lot of things. But we’re not going to do that. Right now he’s making enough plays where he is. We’re bringing a rookie along.”

The second-round draft pick, who has returned two punts and one missed field goal for touchdowns this season, is showing steady improvement on defense.

“He’s making great progress as a cornerback, if you watch him in the drills,” Smith said. “He’s a defensive back and he’s really putting time into becoming a good defensive back. He sees himself as a defensive back and we’ll go from there.”

Interested viewers: Sitting around their hotel before last Sunday night’s game against the Giants, several Bears players watched the Jets’ impressive 17-14 victory at New England on television.

“I learned that they play fast and they’re physical and they show a lot of different looks, a lot of different coverages and that they’re a really good football team,” said quarterback Rex Grossman. “I knew that going into watching that game, and it was just evidence that they can close off close games.”

“That was definitely a big momentum booster for them,” said defensive end Adewale Ogunleye. “We’ve got to play our ‘A’ game against the Jets. We’ve really got to play well.”

“The Jets are a fine team,” said cornerback Charles Tillman. “It’s a big deal when someone beats the Patriots because they’ve won three Super Bowls. Anybody can win in this league. Miami beat us. They don’t have the best record. It’s not about having the best record. It’s about showing up on Sunday and they showed up (last) Sunday.”

Familiar surroundings: The Bears are the first team to play back-to-back road games against the Jets and Giants since the Washington Redskins defeated both New York squads in 1999. While the surroundings will be familiar, Smith isn’t sure whether returning to the same venue will provide an edge for his team.

“I hope so,” said the Bears coach. “We know how to win there, we know that for a fact. But I don’t know what advantage it’ll be for us, except that we are familiar with the entire set up there.”

“I think it’s going to be a benefit,” Grossman said. “Anytime you’re going into familiar surroundings—it’s fresh in our heads where the play clock is, the crowd noise and how that will affect us and everything from the turf to the locker rooms—I think it should benefit us. But that’s just kind of a sidebar to the whole thing. We need to go out and execute.”

Kinda neat if you ask me, our guys got to sit and watch their next two road opponents play against eachother prior to their first of three road games.

Here's to an exciting injury free game.

[justincredible]

Rex Grossman's feelings are going to get hurt;)

[serphnx]

Noooo, I would have rather read something like "The Jets? I dunno, they're 5-4, we haven't gotten around to watching game film yet, but tomorrow we're planning on watching some stuff. It's just not a big deal, we're Da Bears."

Oh well, I guess it's better this way.