AP

If you want to earn the respect of a hard-hitting defense, you have to be hard-hitting yourself.

So it was no surprise the Bears were impressed with Texans running back Arian Foster last night.

“He’s a bad ass,” Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said, via John Mullin of CSNChicago.com. “You watch him on tape, you watch him on TV, you can’t really get a grasp of how fast he is, how big he is. I had no idea.”

He does now.

Foster did the toughest thing for a running back to do — he ran when everybody in the building knew the run was coming.

In the wind and rain and muck that made it near-impossible to pass, Foster ran for 85 yards in the first half and 102 for the game, with the game’s only touchdown on a short pass in the Texans’ 13-6 win.

It was just the second time in 20 games the Bears had allowed a 100-yard rusher, but it was different from the 141 Chris Johnson hung on them. That included an 80-yard run in the fourth quarter of a blowout, whereas Foster got his yards methodically.

“He’s so patient,” Bears defensive end Corey Wootton said. “It’s not so much that he’s explosive. He waits on his blockers, makes good decisions and then really hits the hole he picks.”

He also earned some street cred from one of the league’s baddest defenses by beating them at their own game.