Devin Hester won his third Special Teams Player of the Week award with his performance on Sunday against the Detroit Lions.

Hester had an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown and  122 punt return yards on three returns.

All of those yards came on a bad ankle and with Hester battling strep throat.

He now trails Hall of Famer Deion Sanders by only one return touchdown. Sanders has the record with 19, while Hester added his 18th on Sunday.

Hester is averaging a career best 20.1 yards per punt return on fifteen run backs this season.

Since 2006, the Bears are 13-4 when the Hester takes a return for a touchdown, including a 3-0 record in 2011 through the first nine games.

Hester was limited in practice today with his ankle still being a problem. It will be interesting to see how much the Bears use him on offense this coming Sunday.

Hester caused the Lions to switch punters once again. Ryan Malone was replaced by veteran Ben Graham today.

Malone was told by the Lions coaches to punt the ball out of bounds on Hester’s second quarter touchdown return.

You would think teams would know to kick the ball away from Hester by now. Right?

Jake Perper is the owner and head writer for Bearsbacker.com. He is also the Chicago Bears writer for NFLTouchdown.com. Follow him on Twitter, @Bearsbacker and on Facebook for up to the minute news about the Bears.