Bears end Saints season again, 33-25

CHICAGO — Devin Hester raced past the New Orleans Saints and ended their bid for a return to the playoffs.

Hester sprinted 64 yards for a touchdown on a punt return, his NFL-record sixth kick runback for a score this season to break his own mark set a year ago. He also caught a 55-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Orton as the Chicago Bears beat the Saints 33-25 on Sunday.

When the teams met 11 months ago for the NFC championship on the same field, the Bears earned a trip to the Super Bowl with a 39-14 victory. Now they're both going home before the playoffs even start.

New Orleans' slim chances hinged on beating the Bears and hoping for losses later in the day by the Redskins and Vikings.

Chicago (7-9) was eliminated from the postseason picture two weeks ago. The Bears won their final two games, their only two-game winning streak all year.

The Saints' Drew Brees and Marques Colston hooked up for two first-half touchdown passes, and Brees set a single-season NFL record for completions, passing the previous mark of 418 set by Rich Gannon in 2002. He needed just 11 entering the game

But Colston, who took several hard shots, hurt his left wrist and spent the second half on the sidelines, taking away the Saints' chief threat. Running back Reggie Bush was out with a knee injury.

Brees was 35-of-60 for 320 yards with three TDs.

After the Saints (7-9) went three-and-out on the first series of the second half, they punted to Hester. He went right and then quickly cut back left, found a seam and easily outraced would-be tacklers to put the Bears ahead 31-17.

Hester now has four punt return TDS and two on kickoffs this season. Last year he had five total, three on punts and two on kickoffs — not counting one to start the Super Bowl.

Undrafted rookie free agent Pierre Thomas, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and played his college ball at Illinois, gave the Saints a big lift, gaining 105 yards rushing and catching 12 passes for 121 yards.

Hester hauled in Orton's long pass and split two defenders for the 55-yard score with 1:48 to go in the first half — 19 seconds after Brees threw his second TD pass of the game to Colston.

Colston made eight receptions in the first half and broke Joe Horn's club-record of 94 catches in a season. He finished with 98.