“Cuts right cuts left there’s a seam AND HES OFF!! FIFTY! FOURTY! THIRTY! TWENTY! TEN!! TOUCHDOWN!!!! DEVIN HESTER YOU ARE RIDICULOUS!!! Those famous words were spoken after Devin Hester scored another return touchdown adding to his already growing legend. Special Teams is an often over looked part of football, however what people don’t realize is that Special Teams can make or break a football Team. Don’t think so? Just look at the facts. In 2006 the Bears Superbowl year Devin Hester ran wild and set records as a punt/kick returner. He was the offense for the Bears he put the team on his shoulders when the offense couldn’t. An example being the famous Cardinals-Bears game on Monday Night Football Devin Hester helped the Bears come back from a 20-0 deficit at halftime by scoring the winning touchdown on his 83 yard punt return. The Bears have always had good special teams to bad the same cannot be said for the Pittsburg Steelers.

In the 2009 NFL season the Pittsburg Steelers had one of the top five defensives in the league along with an explosive offense led by Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall. You would think that a team with those credentials would easily make the playoffs after all the Steelers were the defending Superbowl Champions, shockingly the Steelers finished just 9-7 good for third in the AFC North and out of the playoffs. The reason: Bad Special Teams. In week two against the Chicago Bears, Steelers kicker Jeff Reed missed two critical field goals and Chicago’s kicker Robbie Gould was able to kick the go ahead field goal that gave the Bears the win 17-14. Later on in the season with a 6-2 record and an impressive win over the previously undefeated Denver Broncos the Steelers faced division rival Cincinnati with first place on the line. Bengals running back Bernard Scott returned a kickoff 96 yard Touchdown; final score 18-12. After the loss to the Bengals, the Pittsburgh Steelers journeyed to Arrowhead Stadium for a match with the Chiefs. At the start of the first quarter Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles returned a kickoff from their own 3-yard line to the Steelers' end zone for a touchdown. The game would latter go into overtime with Kansas City winning on a 22 yard field goal; final score 27-24. There would be many more special team collapses for the Steelers such as the game against the Cleveland Browns where they gave up 200 All-Purpose yards to Browns returner Josh Cribbs. That’s four games that the Steelers could have easily won if they had decent Special Teams that 9-7 record could have been 12-4 not only good for the playoffs but probably a #2 seed and a first round bye. All that could have been if only they had the Special Teams.

The point being that it takes more than a good offense and defense to make a playoff football team it also takes Special Teams. While struggling to find consistency on both offense and defense, the Bears have always had excellent Special Teams spearheaded by Coach Dave Toub. With that being said we now break down the All-Decade Special Teams.

Return specialist

Devin Hester (2006-present)
Hester took the league by storm in 2006, setting an NFL record as a rookie with five kick return touchdowns—and that total did not include a 108-yard return TD of a missed field against the Giants or his 92-yard return TD on the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI. Hester then eclipsed his own mark with six kick return TDs in 2007. Hester is a two time Pro Bowler having been selected in 2008 and 2007.

Kicker

Robbie Gould (2005-present)
Signed as a free agent midway through the 2005 season, Gould has become the most accurate kicker in NFL history—counting regular-season and playoffs—having connected on 86.4 percent of his field goal attempts (140 of 162). He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2006 after finishing second in the NFL in scoring with 143 points and making 32 of 36 field goal tries (88.9 percent). Gould converted 26 of 29 field goal attempts (89.7 percent) in 2008, breaking his own franchise single-season record for accuracy. Going into the 2009 season, Gould had converted 84.8 of his career field goal attempt. He has only ever missed one extra point attempt.

Punter

Brad Maynard (2001-present)

One of the NFL’s most proficient directional punters, Maynard has placed 261 punts inside-the-20 since he joined the Bears in 2001, the most in the league during that span. A versatile athlete, he has also thrown TD passes of 27 yards to Urlacher and 12 yards to Dustin Lyman as the holder on fake field goals.
Well these are your All-Decade Special Teams players. This is our last segment of the Bears All-Decade team. We hope you enjoyed our articles and come back soon for more exciting news and updates about Da Bears.