LAKE FOREST, Ill. – With apologies to Yogi Berra, Bears cornerback Nathan Vasher experienced déjà vu all over again in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s 38-20 win over the New York Giants.

A year after Vasher returned a missed a field goal 108 yards for a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers to set a record for the longest play in NFL history, teammate Devin Hester duplicated the feat. Both returns were 108 yards down the right sideline after a 52-yard field goal attempt fell well short.

Devin Hester's record 108-yard TD return of a missed field goal gave the Bears a 31-20 lead en route to a 38-20 win Sunday night over the Giants.

“I was excited because we needed a big play,” Vasher said. “The way (Hester) struggled last week (muffing a punt that led to a touchdown in a loss to the Dolphins) and him coming back and doing the things that he does … he’s such a great addition to our team. We’re lucky to have him.”

The Pro Football Hall of Fame put Vasher’s jersey and the football on display and could be looking for a larger case to honor both Bears record-breakers.

“We’re going to have to just make it bigger,” said Vasher, whose TD return came exactly one year ago today at Soldier Field. “Scoot over a couple things and add his in there because he definitely deserves it.”

There was one major difference with the two returns. Unlike last year when Vasher scored on the final play of the first half, the Bears dropped Hester back near the goal line because they were expecting Giants kicker Jay Feely to attempt a “pooch” punt out of field goal formation.

Given the height and distance of the kick, special teams coordinator Dave Toub waved his arms from the sideline, attempting to tell Hester to down the ball in the end zone. Had the rookie taken a knee, the Bears would have taken over at their own 42, the spot of the missed field goal try.

“I tried to tell him to stay in, but he didn’t listen to me and he got a touchdown,” Toub said with a laugh. “With the hang time of the field goal, I wanted him to stay where he was.

"If he would have seen me, he would have stayed. (But) he saw (Brian) Urlacher and all those guys urging him on to come out because he had a wall set up.”

After catching the ball, Hester hesitated for an instant and then slowly took two steps forward before bursting out of the end zone and heading down the sideline in front of the Bears bench.

“I probably would have downed it if I saw the defenders coming at me full steam ahead,” he said. “But it seemed like all of them were just kind of walking off the field like the play was over. That’s when I decided to take it out.”

Hester raced untouched the length of the field, protected by a wall of blockers. First, Urlacher stepped in front of Chris Snee. Alfonso Boone then knocked Kareem McKenzie to the ground, Charles Tillman blasted Shaun O’Hara and Hunter Hillenmeyer wiped out Feely.

Television cameras captured Bears coach Lovie Smith running down the sideline with both arms raised over his head.

Hester’s third TD return of the season—the first two came on punt returns of 84 and 83 yards—gave the Bears a 31-20 lead shortly after the Giants had scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to 24-20.

“That was a huge play,” said quarterback Rex Grossman. “It was just a great play by him. I’m not sure if anyone is as good as he is returning kicks right now, especially when you don’t expect it coming. He just made an unbelievable play on that and put the game out of reach.”

After the game, the Giants insisted that they weren’t surprised by the play. New York’s special teams coach, Mike Sweatman, has spent 23 years in the NFL including three seasons with the Bears from 2001-03 under Dick Jauron.

“We practice that a lot,” said long-snapper Ryan Kuehl. “With the winds around here, you are never quite sure what is going to happen with the ball once it gets up there. Hester is a real fast, talented guy. He had too much room. Once he got to the edge, they had a wall set up and it was pretty much over from there.”

New York newspapers skewered Giants coach Tom Coughlin over his decision to try the field goal. One Daily News columnist wrote that “it was one of the oddest calls in the long history of unfathomable Giants coaching moves. The call was a long shot, literally and figuratively. It didn’t make much sense. And then it not only backfired, it cost the Giants everything.”

“It was a tough kick, a 52-yarder into the wind,” Feely said. “I felt like I could make it. The coach asked me, and I told him that I could make it. I made a 53-yarder going that way in warm-ups. I thought I hit it well. I thought I made it when I hit it. Then it just fluttered and died.

“We practice covering on those long kicks because you know that in this stadium it is going to happen. Hester is just fast and he’s a great return man. He took off on that right side and just had a convoy.”