Forte carries the entire offense for the Bears

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Matt Forte doesnt just play for the Bears. He essentially is the Bears.

How important is Forte to what the Bears do? When he rushes for 100 yards, theyre 3-0. When he doesnt? Theyre 1-3.

He has 1,091 of their 2,362 total yards, a ridiculous 46 percent.

He has 162 touches. Nobody else has more than 25.

Hes their leading rusher and their leading receiver.

Hes averaging 134 rushing yards in the Bears three wins and 46 rushing yards in the Bears three losses.

How important is Forte to the Bears? Hes pretty much all they have.

When he makes up half of the offense, we should give him half the attention, Eagles defensive end Jason Babin said.

The Bears quarterback is inconsistent. Their wide receivers are mediocre. Their tight end has eight catches and their fullback has five.

The Bears live and die by Matt Forte.

Shut him down, youre guaranteed a win. Its just really hard to shut him down.

Hes one of the best running backs in the NFL, Eagles defensive end Trent Cole said. Hes a hard runner. When he gets going, he just goes. He eludes people in the open field. The man is just having a great season, leading the NFL in total yards, and its a big key to us going into this game Monday to keep him contained.

The Eagles, 3-4, seek their third straight win when they face the Bears in a nationally televised Monday Night Football game at the Linc.

The Bears, 4-3, have won three of their last four games. This is the fifth straight year the Eagles and Bears have played. The Bears have won three of the last four.

The Eagles had good success against Forte in 2008 (19-for-43) and 2009 (14-for-34), but Forte ran 14 times for 117 yards against the Eagles last year, when the Bears won 31-26 at Soldier Field.

When he hits the open field, he knows how to dodge people, Cole said. He knows how to get around them. Just watching film Ive seen him take hits and bounce off people. Peoples hits, he works off of them and manages to stay up. The man can run the ball.

With a guy like that, being, what, 50 percent of their offense, if you slow him down, youre going to put a dent in their offensive game. I think going into this game, containing him and getting on the quarterback early, I think is going to pretty much shut the game down.

Forte ranks fifth in the NFL with 672 rushing yards and third with 5.4 yards per carry. Hes also first among all running backs with 38 catches and 419 yards. Fortes league-best 1,091 total yards lead the NFC by more than 150 yards.

At his current pace -- 156 yards from scrimmage per game -- Forte will net 2,493 yards this year, which would be the second-highest in NFL history, behind only Chris Johnsons 2,509 in 2009.

He has a long stride, Eagles linebacker Jamar Chaney said. Hes pretty fast, especially being that big. When he makes his long run, he doesnt look to go out of bounds, he looks to make a cutback or looks to run somebody over.

Forte is on pace for 1,536 rushing yards this year, a plateau reached only by Walter Payton in Bears history.

"We feel like Matt Forte has played as well as any running back in the league this year, Bears coach Lovie Smith said. He can do it all. Great pass receiver, whether it's out of the backfield or spreading him out. He can make you miss in the open field as a runner, he can run in between the tackles -- he can do it all.

When you have a running back like that, it does open up a lot of things, just like with Philly, where a team can't lock in and let the running game get going.

On paper, this looks like a very tough matchup for the Eagles, who havent slowed down a good running back yet.

Other than the win against the Redskins -- which Tim Hightower missed -- the Eagles have struggled all year against the run. Opposing backs are averaging 5.1 yards per carry -- 28th-best in the league -- and six of the Eagles seven opponents have averaged over 4.0 yards per carry.

Even Sunday, in the Eagles 34-7 demolition of the Cowboys, the Eagles let rookie DeMarco Murray ramble for 74 yards on just nine carries. Only the Eagles huge lead prevented Murray from being a bigger weapon for Dallas.

Are the Eagles capable of shutting down a top back?

Well see, Cole said. This is a big test for us Monday. Thats the only way were going to find out, playing against the Chicago Bears and playing against a great running back.

We dont want him getting upfield. We dont want him to get past the line of scrimmage. We want to contain him, and I think we have the defense to do it. Im 100 percent confident about our defense going into this game.

Forte, in his fourth year from Tulane, is producing huge numbers despite being embroiled in an ugly contract impasse with the Bears.

Like DeSean Jackson in Philly, Forte is in the final year of a four-year contract that includes a minimum base salary of 600,000 this year.

I feel like hes running with a chip on his shoulder from all the stuff hes been through, Cole said. Running mad, I would say.

Fred Jackson, Frank Gore and Michael Turner have all rushed for over 100 yards against the Eagles so far this year. Cadillac Williams (91), Ahmad Bradshaw (86) and Murray (74) have come close.

Will Forte be the next to gash the Birds?

Hes running pretty hard, Chaney said. Hes always been a good back but this year, theres something about him. It seems like hes running harder. Hes a big part of the offense. We go into the gameplan and were pretty sure you have to stop Forte. Thats the No. 1 thing you have to do. They games they are winning, he has pretty big games.

E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com.

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