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Even Chicago Bears' opponents taking notice of Cohen

Rookie running back Tarik Cohen already has become a one of the Chicago Bears' most exciting players because of his instant acceleration and gnat-like quickness.

But Cohen was more excited by a missive he received from Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu than by any of his 18 carries that have generated a team-best 116 yards (6.4-yard average) in the first two preseason games.

After Cohen gouged the Cardinals for 77 yards on 11 carries in last week's 24-23 Bears victory in Arizona, he got a message on social media from Mathieu, one of his heroes.

"I've been following him for, like forever," Cohen said of the Cardinals' Pro Bowler. "I watched his highlights before every game in college, me and my teammates. He DM'ed me on Twitter to just tell me, 'Keep grinding; stay humble.' "

How excited was the 5-foot-6, 181-pound fourth-round pick from North Carolina A&T?

"I wanted to scream like a little girl," he said, cracking up his audience. "But you gotta be a man about it, so, 'Thank you. Appreciate it.' "

Not all the reaction Cohen has received from opponents has been positive. The Cardinals' 6-foot-3, 280-pound 11th-year veteran Frostee Rucker seemed to take umbrage at Cohen's production.

"I wasn't talking trash, so nobody was talking trash to me," Cohen said. "(Except) on one of my runs, Frostee Rucker really stared me down on the sideline, but it was nothing big. I double-taked (on) that. He's like 7-foot. I had to make sure he was staring, and he was staring. So I walked back to the huddle like, 'Why's that dude staring at me?' "

Maybe Rucker couldn't believe such a small player could break so many tackles. Maybe he was shocked that a player from an FCS school could transition so smoothly to the NFL.

After watching Cohen throughout training camp and two preseason games, Bears coach John Fox isn't amazed by his exploits on the field because he had seen them on tape. But Fox has been pleasantly surprised by Cohen's intangibles.

"You watch tape, and there's measurables in all different areas," Fox said. "But what you don't know until you get them is: How fast are they going to learn? How are they going to study? How are they going to work?

"There's a lot of successful people that maybe did not have great ACT or SAT scores. You don't know the grit level of a guy until he gets here, but I've been impressed with that."

Cohen got more touches - and the start - last week because Jordan Howard didn't make the trip to the desert because of a scratched cornea. As he has all along, Cohen took the opportunity and ran with it.

"He's done a superb job," Fox said. "We gave Tarik that opportunity (because) we've seen a lot of good things in our practices. He earned it, and I thought he did real well."

• Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere.

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