BEARS IN BRIEF: Hester expects to play; Boldin less certain
The Bears won't be without their top wide receiver, and the Arizona Cardinals just might have their No. 2 guy after all Sunday at Soldier Field.
Devin Hester returned to practice for the first time this week on Friday with his sprained right ankle and participated in portions of practice. He looked fine running around, and although he's listed as questionable on the injury report, he's expected to start. The Cardinals also got wide receiver Anquan Boldin back on the field Friday in a limited capacity, and he also is questionable.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
Boldin suffered a high ankle sprain on Oct. 11 and was knocked out of last Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers. He has vowed to play, and the Bears are expecting to see him, but Boldin figures to be more of a true game-time decision than Hester.
''My ankle is good,'' Hester said. ''No worries.''
Arizona, 4-3 and a game ahead of San Francisco in the NFC West, needs to balance the desire to have Boldin on the field and the need to try to move past an injury that isn't going to just go away. He already has said he knows he will not be 100 percent at any point this season.
''He looked fine to me on tape,'' cornerback Zack Bowman said. ''He was running good. He's tough. Look at him last year [with the fractured jaw]. That's why even though they say ankle sprain, he's going to play.''
Bowman figures to draw the matchup on Boldin if he does play as the Bears likely will shadow Larry Fitzgerald with Charles Tillman. They can't forget about Steve Breaston, either; he has 30 catches for 400 yards and was the Cardinals' third 1,000-yard receiver last season.
''Just because they have Larry and Boldin, too, he can easily be forgotten,'' Bowman said. ''But not to us.''
The Bears figure to dial up the pressure on Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner with a series of blitzes, something they've done with regularity this season. The Bears have had success against Warner in the past when they've brought pressure, and if they sit back in cover-2, he's likely to pick apart the secondary.
Lovie Smith has been bringing pressure most of the season, and according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Bears are blitzing 42.3 percent of the time -- 10th most in the league. Smith long has said he'd like to blitz one-third of the time, play cover-2 one-third of the time and be in other coverages one-third of the time, but the numbers show he's not comfortable sitting back and covering with the secondary right now.
Boldin has vowed to play, and he's a key element in the passing game on hot routes. The Bears can feel better about covering a slowed Boldin on those hot routes when they pressure Warner, and still provide safety help over the top on No. 1 wide receiver Fitzgerald.
Despite all the blitzing the last year and a half or so, the Bears have not produced top sack numbers. What Greg Blache said when he was here rings true, though -- it's more about getting pressure than it is the actual sack. Thing is, the Bears really haven't had many accomplished blitzers when it comes to sacks. Since Smith arrived in 2004, linebackers Brian Urlacher and Hunter Hillenmeyer are the only non-linemen to have more than two sacks in a season. But it has been done only once -- Urlacher had five in 2007 -- since Ron Rivera departed. Hillenmeyer had 2½ in 2004.
Rookie safety Al Afalava sacked Aaron Rodgers in the season opener at Green Bay, and Danieal Manning had a safety on a sack in that game. They're new to the blitz scheme. In fact, Afalava said he blitzed just once in four seasons as a starter at Oregon State.
''Coming here, they make use of the safeties a lot,'' Afalava said. ''It's kind of a big adjustment. I'm still learning. You have to learn how to get off a man so you can get to the quarterback.''
Free runs at the passer rarely happen, so it comes down to blitzers developing a trusted move and also being able to use their hands to defeat blocks at the point of attack. Sacking Warner on Sunday will help, but forcing him to get the ball out before he wants will be just as disruptive.
The Bears don't know exactly what they're running into in Fitzgerald. They've never played him before. He missed the wild Monday night game in 2006 when a hamstring injury sidelined him for three games.
• One of the signs of the 3-4 defense that Bill Davis installed at Arizona this season -- 10 different defenders have combined for the team's 17 sacks. Defensive end Calais Campbell has a sack in three consecutive games.
• Offensive tackle Mike Gandy, a third-round pick by the Bears in 2001, made 30 starts for them through 2004. Sunday will mark his 40th career start for the Cardinals and the 102nd of his career. The most starts by a Jerry Angelo-drafted lineman for the Bears? Terrence Metcalf with 25.