"In his opinion, Bears head coach Lovie Smith said, the Raiders have to kick to dangerous returner Devin Hester on Sunday. It's a pride thing ... wink, wink.

"It's hard to go into meetings and tell your punt team that, 'Hey, guys, we don't think you're good enough, so we're going to have to kick it out of bounds because we don't think you can tackle one guy down on the other end,' " Smith said. "I just don't think you can go in and do that very often."

Smith's efforts to goad Oakland into kicking to the NFL-record holder in punt-return touchdowns (12) might work - if it were up to the Raiders on the punt-coverage team. But punter Shane Lechler has a little bigger say, being the one who actually kicks the ball, and he wants no part of Hester.

"With the situation they're in right now, I am going to try not to let him touch it," Lechler said. "Because they got a new quarterback this week, losing Jay (Cutler), they're looking for a spark somewhere. And I don't want that spark to be against our punt team."

Cutler broke his thumb in Sunday's game against the Chargers, and Caleb Hanie will make his first career start.

Lechler's plan seems smart, considering:

-- Hester, a 29-year-old who has 19 career total return touchdowns (12 on punt returns, six on kickoff returns and one on a missed field-goal try), is averaging a career-best 21.2 yards on punt returns this season and has two returns for TDs.

-- The Raiders have given up the most punt-return yardage in the league. Opponents have run back two punts for scores this season: a 90-yard return by Denver's Eric Decker on Sept. 12 and an 85-yarder by the Broncos' Eddie Royal on Nov. 6."