As they tumbled to their fifth defeat in a row, the Rams mustered a mere 14 rushing yards on 19 carries in succumbing to the Bears 27-3.

"Nothing was working right," grumbled running back Antonio Pittman.

First-teamer Steven Jackson missed his fourth game in the past five weeks with a thigh injury. His replacements, second-year pros Pittman and Kenneth Darby, produced just 18 yards on 16 carries.

"There was a little running room, and we tried to get what we could," Darby said. "We just didn't have a good day."

Conversely, the Bears pounded out a season-high 201 yards on the ground. Rookie Matt Forte piled up 132 yards on 20 carries to become the seventh back to reach triple figures against a Rams defense that ranked 29th in the 32-team NFL vs. the run.

A run-game discrepancy of 187 yards is hardly a recipe for success, and Darby stressed that the Rams had only themselves to blame for the disparity.

"We knew what they were going to do, and we were prepared for them," he said. "Mental mistakes and turning the ball over a lot hurt us bad."

Of the Rams' 11 penalties, five were drive-killers charged to the offense - four false starts and one holding.

"We always found a way to put ourselves in a bad position," tackle Adam Goldberg said. "Once you're in second-and-18 or second-and-14, it's hard to establish a running game."

Pittman rushed for a career-high 95 yards last week at San Francisco. The Bears' defense - No. 6 in the league against the run - wasn't as accommodating. His nine attempts netted 8 yards.

"I don't think that they did anything different than what we saw on film. We saw that team get gashed last week," Pittman said. "But it's not about what they did to us, it's about what we need to do to them. That's the reality of it."

Getting a lead would help, Pittman noted. As has been the trend recently, the Rams fell behind early and essentially were finished by halftime, trailing 24-3.

"We can't be a team that waits on the other team to make a big play and then respond; that's just not how we play," Pittman said. "We're not a good team at coming from behind. We have to get out there and get on top of a team and attack them before they attack us."

The Bears got on top just 1 minute, 55 seconds after the opening kickoff, Forte scoring on a 13-yard jaunt off right guard. He sprinted 47 yards to the end zone in the second period, boosting Chicago's lead to 21-0.

Overall, the Bears averaged 6.3 yards on 32 running plays; the Rams averaged 0.7 yards on 19 attempts.

"We didn't stop the run, and we didn't run the ball effectively," Rams cornerback Ron Bartell said, "and this is the outcome ... the same outcome we've had."