Sore hand limits Cutler's passing

After a huge first quarter in which he completed 4 of 7 passes for 131 yards, Jay Cutler threw just 11 more passes and produced just 12 more yards.

Part of the reason was a hand injury he suffered midway through the second quarter when Leonard Little hit him near the sideline after an incomplete pass.

"I dinged my hand a little bit," Cutler said. "Part of it was the way our defense was playing. We didn't feel like we had to make some big plays or throw the ball down the field. So it was a combination of a lot of different things."

It was the fewest passes Cutler has ever thrown in an NFL game he started and finished, but he still came away with a 96.0 passer rating, his fifth-highest of the season.

It also was the first time in eight games in which Cutler wasn't intercepted. He had been picked off 15 times in the previous seven games.

"When we had the opportunity to make plays, he made them," offensive coordinator Ron Turner said.

"He didn't have all that many opportunities, but when he did, I thought he saw the field well, made all the right reads, got us out of some bad runs, some bad situations, and got us into some good plays. I thought he played really well."

Making a run: Matt Forte's 91 rushing yards (on 24 carries) represented his second-best game of a disappointing season in which he's averaging 3.4 yards per carry.

It also was only the second time in nine games that he got more than 20 carries.

"I think it's a start of better things to come," said Forte, who averaged 3.8 yards per carry Sunday. "We had not been playing good ball lately, and then we get a win, so I think it's a start."

Forte has had fewer carries this season than he did as a rookie, when he rushed for 1,238 yards and averaged 3.9 yards on 316 attempts. But he's not second-guessing the playcalling.

"They call the plays; I run the plays," Forte said. "It's not complaining or anything like that. I'm back there to do my job and help this team win."

Big hit: Punter Brad Maynard may have saved a touchdown when he brought down the Rams' Danny Amendola after a 30-yard return early in the fourth quarter.

As Maynard emerged from the victorious locker room his young son rushed up to him and said excitedly, "Dad, did you see your tackle?"

"Yeah," Maynard said, laughing, "I was there."