Two plays were all it took. They jumped from the screen and grabbed you by the collar, pulling you in for a closer look. | NFL page | U Pick 'Em

Two plays made you drop to your knees and give thanks for the post-Benson era. Two plays turned skepticism to hope, for the game, the season, the future.

The first caught eyes everywhere, even the untrained in regard to Chicago Bears football. Rookie Matt Forte's 50-yard touchdown burst Sunday night, 10 minutes into the season opener at Indianapolis, was a mix of good blocking, shifty running and flat-out speed.

The blocking gave Forte a hole, and his juke of Colts' defensive back Antoine Bethea gave him a path to the end zone. He used it to outrun safety Bob Sanders, the 2007 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

The second play received less air time, yet was invaluable to witnesses/survivors of the Cedric Benson experience. Forte was nailed by Sanders at the end of a second-quarter pass reception. It would have left Benson in the fetal position and done for the game, maybe longer.

Forte went to the sideline but returned shortly thereafter. He went on to a 123-yard night on 23 carries.

Two plays revealed his vision, elusiveness, speed and toughness. Two plays told you he is everything Benson was not.

Lovie Smith's mantra, "We get off the bus running," works best when your feature back runs hard, runs forward and runs from start to finish. Forte did not lose yardage on a single carry. Benson could lose two yards from the bus to the locker room.

Make that the bus to the training room, where Benson spent a good chunk of his three seasons with the Bears. He never proved worthy of a first-round pick (No. 4 overall), while already, Forte appears to be a steal in the second round.

Granted, one game is a snapshot in the career of an NFL running back. Yet, Benson's tenure was a series of forgettable snapshots, right up to the glassy-eyed mug shot which became his lasting image as a Bear.

It lowered the bar for whoever succeeded him, and Forte cleared it with ease Sunday, playing a lot more like Thomas Jones than Benson.

Jones was the Bears' most productive back in 2005 and the Super Bowl season of 2006, winning the respect of teammates, coaches and fans with his attitude, toughness and hard-running style.

His trade to the Jets prior to last season gave Benson the chance to be "the man." Benson dropped the ball on and off the field, creating an opening for Forte. After three years of disinterest and discontent, at least he gave us that.

The knock on Forte was his numbers at Tulane were achieved against weak competition. Skeptics considered his 2,127 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns as a senior to be fool's gold, citing the light years between Conference USA and the NFL.

Sunday night was an emphatic response, his emergence as the anti-Cedric coming against one of the NFL's elite. That wasn't UTEP, Rice or SMU on the other side, but a team one year removed from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Best of all, the 6-foot-2, 216-pound Forte has the size to hold up and, it appears, the desire.

He doesn't need to be Walter Payton, the late Hall of Famer and last Bears' rookie running back to start an opener (1975). Forte simply needs to be what he was against the Colts … a viable threat who keeps his eyes open, motor running and legs churning until the whistle blows.

Do that, and this could be a better season than we dared to imagine, for him and the Bears. Already, he is better than his predecessor.

Two plays told us that.

Randy Kindred is a Pantagraph columnist. To leave him a voice mail, call 820-3402. By e-mail: rkindred@pantagraph.com. The Randy Kindred Blog is at www.pantagraph.com/blogs

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