Forte carries the day for Chicago Bears

Matt Forte's 141 rushing yards in the 31-23 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday were the fourth most in his eight-year career.

"It felt good. It felt like that's how it's supposed to be," said Forte, who carried 24 times for a 5.9-yard average and had a 1-yard touchdown run. "I can't take credit for that running game. The offensive line did a great job getting me to the second and third levels.

"You make one guy miss and you get more yards and get big plays. I was able to do that.

"It starts up front. They did a great job for us."

Left guard Matt Slauson was instrumental in opening holes for Forte, and he credited offensive coordinator Adam Gase for showing confidence in the O-line.

"To have a coordinator that actually trusts us to run (is huge)," Slauson said. "In my mind, we have the best back in the game. He deserves everything he got. But he deserves even more a win, and we have to do a better job of doing that."

The Bears elected to take points off the board in the second quarter, when the Packers jumped offsides on Robbie Gould's apparent 27-yard field goal. It turned out to be the right decision. On fourth-and-half-a-yard from the Packers' 5, Forte ran for the first down.

On the next play, though, a wide-open Forte dropped a pass on the goal line.

"Coach (John) Fox talked to me and said it was OK, just make up for it," Forte said.

Two plays later Forte's 1-yard TD run put the Bears up 10-7.

The dead zone:

While the Packers were 4-for-5 converting red-zone opportunities into touchdowns, the Bears were just 1-for-3.

"I thought we had a great plan against what they did defensively," coach John Fox said. "Our offensive coaches did a tremendous job, maybe than a couple of red-area stops that I thought were pretty much the difference in the game."

Trailing 24-16 and faced with second-and-goal from the Green Bay 2, the Bears turned the ball over on downs with 7:38 remaining after 3 straight Jay Cutler incompletions.

"You're not going to run against that front," Cutler said. "We had some good play calls. We messed up a few things that will get corrected and give us better opportunities there."

What's the rush:

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was not sacked while throwing 23 passes. He was forced to scramble several times but picked up 36 yards on six scampers.

"(The pass rush) wasn't good enough," Bears coach John Fox said. "But that guy wearing No. 12 (Rodgers) is pretty good at that as far as avoiding the rush. We have to get better at it, just like I would say about every position on our football team."

Just for kicks:

It was a monumental day for Robbie Gould, the sixth-most-accurate field-goal kicker (85.7 percent) in NFL history.

His 28-yard field goal in the first quarter, which opened the day's scoring, was his 244th, breaking a tie with Kevin Butler and giving him the most in franchise history. Gould reached the record on 285 attempts, an 85.6 percent success rate. Butler reached the old mark on 332 attempts (73.2).

Later, Gould connected from 50 and 44 yards, the first of which established a franchise record for field goals of 50 yards or longer with 17.

That also broke a tie with Butler, who made his 16 on 42 attempts (38.1 percent). Gould is 17-for-23 (73.9) from 50 or longer.

Sitting it out:

Inactive for the Bears were quarterback David Fales, cornerback Tracy Porter (hamstring) running back Ka'Deem Carey, linebacker Jon Bostic (ankle), center Hroniss Grasu, offensive tackle Tayo Fabuluje and wide receiver Cam Meredith.

Defensive end Cornelius Washington left with a right-quad strain in the third quarter and did not return. Wide receiver Eddie Royal went through the concussion protocol but returned when he was cleared.