Giants' Coughlin prepares Dodge for Hester

Tom Coughlin had some public advice for his rookie punter as he prepares to kick toward Chicago's dangerous Devin Hester on Sunday night.

"Kick it out of bounds," Coughlin said. "Don't let him have the ball."

Matt Dodge will try to do that. Trouble is, for most of his first year in the NFL he has had very little control over where the football goes. He's banged some line drives that have been too returnable, shanked some off to the side, and been generally unpredictable. This past week against the Titans he managed to draw the ire of Coughlin - and he didn't even punt in the game. He bungled a field-goal attempt with a delay-of-game penalty and kicked a low screamer on a free kick after a safety.

So when Dodge tries to kick the ball out of bounds per the instructions of his head coach - who was not being funny when he said to do it - it could wind up anywhere. Short. Blocked. Or, perhaps worst of all, in Hester's hands.

"God forbid that he gets it, we have to make some tackles," special-teams linebacker Clint Sintim said. "We're going to do our best obviously to contain him and minimize his impact on special teams."

Dodge said he's been working on directional punting this week, and that it's the first time he's trying it. Directional kicking is a Master's-level course and the 23-year-old Dodge, well, he's still trying to get through freshman orientation.

"As it went on, it got to where I could trust it more and more coming off my foot and I think we'll do all right," Dodge said of the new skill he started tinkering with Wednesday.

Dodge does have the advantage of having worked with Jeff Feagles during the summer.

"Obviously I'm not going to be nearly where he was," Dodge said. "He could put it in a trash can if he wanted to. I'll just do my best and try to keep it out of [Hester's] hands."

That used to be the universal strategy. Hester returned three punts for touchdowns in 2006 and another four in 2007. He also had two kickoff returns for touchdowns in each of those years, not including the one to open Super Bowl XLI against the Colts.

But until Monday night against the Packers, he hadn't gotten into the end zone on special teams in two full seasons.

"There was a time when most teams didn't kick - would not kick - to Devin because of what he could possibly do with the ball," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "He's gone through a streak, a spell of games there where we hadn't really gotten a lot done with our punt return, but after last week he was definitely back. Last week, even the times we didn't score, I felt like he was a threat every time he touched the ball. It'll be interesting to see what exactly our opponents do."

Coughlin certainly wasn't shy about tipping his hand and being up front about the keepaway method. But with Dodge, they have to have backup plans, too.

"It is what it is," special-teams captain Chase Blackburn said of Dodge's problems. "We've got to cover, period, point blank, no matter what it is. If we decide to change it up and go directional, and he's unable to do it, we've got to be there to cover his back. We've got to be there for him. That's it."

Sintim, who watched the game on television Monday night, shared his reaction to Hester's three punt returns for 93 yards, one for a 62-yard touchdown and another a step over the punter away from a second score.

"I thought, 'I'm going to have to lace my Nike's up and get ready to play,' " he said. "He's a threat. Even if he had zero to the house [against the Packers], we knew he would be a threat. We just have to be prepared for it."

Or sidestep it completely.