Bears Blitz

Published by Michael Rushton on September 25, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

It was a simple catch for Devin Hester to make, but critical.

With two minutes remaining in a 14-14 fourth quarter tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bears are facing a 3rd-and-4 from the Pittsburgh 39-yard line.  

With one more first down, the Bears will have the ability to pound the football in the middle of the field, run the clock, and put the game on the foot of Robbie Gould, one of the most accurate and clutch field goal kickers in the game. 

The Bears start out in a trips bunch formation to the left with Devin Hester, Earl Bennett, and Greg Olsen in tight to the left with Matt Forte in the backfield and Johnny Knox all alone split wide right.

Olsen shifts into the backfield, ostensibly becoming a fullback, and Jay Cutler hikes the ball into a play action fake to Forte.  

The Steelers bring pressure from the right side as James Harrison, the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, breaks right to cover Olsen coming out of the backfield. Bennett streaks up five yards and then out and up 10 yards in a flag route, leaving Hester underneath to take advantage of an outmatched Steelers linebacker for a quick five-yard in.

Cutler rolls slightly to the left and throws it down and in to Hester for the first down.

It’s an unremarkable play only made remarkable by the situation and by the fact that Hester has now made his second clutch third down conversion of the fourth quarter.

The greater significance only comes in the context of looking at Hester’s output thus far into an early season: eight receptions, 111 yards, one touchdown.  

Nothing really jumps off the page as being truly remarkable until you realize that seven of his first eight receptions have either been for a first down or a touchdown.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the epitome of clutch production.

Lost in Cutler’s horrid first outing and the emergence of Knox as a legitimate receiving threat is this—Devin Hester is quietly putting together one of the most productive seasons of any receiver in the NFL.

After a shaky preseason in which he often looked out of place and out of sync with Cutler, he has since emerged looking like, well…the only starting Bears receiver with NFL game experience.

He’s made all the catches: back shoulder leaping grabs for first downs with defenders draped on him, quick hits to the flats in space to put patented moves on solo defenders for extra yards and first downs, straight line fly patterns for touchdowns by simply out-running cornerbacks and safeties—it’s all been on display.

And he hasn’t even had his “breakout” game yet.

The knock on Hester this offseason was that he needs to show the league that he is an every down wide receiver—a go-to guy in clutch situations who can not only run faster than everyone, but can also grasp the subtlety of the playbook by finding empty areas in zone coverage or by simply beating man to man coverage and making the tough catch when yards are needed.

More importantly, he needs to gain the trust of Jay Cutler to do those things.

Judging from his lights out production in the first two games of the season and the fact that the Bears coaching staff called a play for him in the most critical moment with the game on the line, you can tell that trust is emerging from not only his quarterback, but from the entire organization as well.

It’s just the beginning of the year, and it’s impossible to divine the myriad twists and turns of an often confounding NFL season. Plenty of questions will remain for Hester and the Bears until Cutler and he are able to combine for a statement performance that any NFL observer can look at and without hesitation say, “Devin Hester has arrived.”

Until then, Hester is quietly emerging as the textbook definition of a No. 1 receiver.

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