Forte breaks loose to finish with 121 yards on the ground

All of a sudden, Matt Forte's yards-per-carry average stands within a few inches of his stellar rookie-year showing.

Funny how dashes for 61 and 37 yards will do that for a running back.

In just 12 carries Sunday, Forte turned a sickly seasonal stat line into something solid enough for now.

Sparked by a 61-yard cutback on the Bears' second play from scrimmage against Detroit, Forte produced 121 yards and his first score to help the Bears roll to a 48-24 victory at Soldier Field.

In his first three games, Forte carried 59 times for just 150 yards and everyone wondered what was wrong.

Now that his average has leaped from 2.5 to 3.8 yards per carry, everything looks a lot better going into the bye week.

"That's what's going to happen," Forte said. "You're not going to get a long run every time. You're not going to get 4 yards or 5 yards every time.

"You might have a 1, a 2, a 3 and then you break a 15- or 20- or 30-yard run and then your average goes up. You have to be patient and trust in your offense."

And you have to be healthy - or willing to play anyway.

"I don't know if a lot of people know that Matt's playing with a bad knee," center Olin Kreutz said. "But he's still out there playing hard and he still broke a couple runs."

After Detroit broke ahead 7-0 on the opening drive, Forte set up Jay Cutler's game-tying scramble with a 61-yard sprint to the 5.

The offensive line and fullback Jason McKie rolled to the left on the snap, but Forte opted to cut back through the open seam up the middle.

From there Forte battled through 10 carries for a grand total of 23 yards. Then came a basic stretch play to the left with 6:46 to go, when Forte merely had to dodge a half-hearted tackle by a Lions cornerback to go 37 yards for his first touchdown this year.

"The offensive line did a great job of sealing off the defense," fullback Jason McKie said. "I was able to get on the second level to the safety. And Matt, it was easy to make a great run like he always does."

"When you get movement off the ball, that gives me time to make a move and use my vision to make a play."