Chicago running back Jordan Howard made it all the way to the end of the Bears' game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, although there were times he didn't think he would.

"Sometimes I hurt pretty bad," Howard said. "I didn't feel like I could finish. But (Chicago running back) Bennie Cunningham, he kept pushing me through it, my coach. I just saw all my teammates, they kept fighting, so I had to keep fighting."

On the game's final play, Howard followed up an 18-yard run with a 19-yard run for a touchdown to lift the Bears to a 23-17 overtime victory against the Steelers.

Howard played despite an acromioclavicular joint sprain -- the collar bone separated from the shoulder blade. Chicago trainers helped him off the field twice, and after particularly hard hits, he got off the turf with his right arm dangling by his side.

Yet for the Bears' game against the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, Howard is not on the Chicago injury report. Good thing, too, because the Bears rank 27th among the NFL's 32 teams in passing yards this season, and quarterback Mike Glennon threw for 101 yards on Sunday against Pittsburgh.

The Bears got their rushing game going against the Steelers, piling up 220 yards on the ground. Howard ran for 140 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, and rookie Tarik Cohen had 78 yards on 12 rushing attempts.

"I think that's what we've established -- that we're going to run the ball against every opponent," Glennon said.

After the Bears got Howard in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, they took Cohen out of North Carolina A&T in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. At 5-foot-6 and 179 pounds, "The Human Joystick" gives the Bears a contrasting running back to "The Bulldozer," who's 6-1 and 225 pounds.

"We can be very potent," Howard said. "I think the sky's the limit. We're trying to be the best duo in the league."

Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy sounded as though he'd like to have Howard and Cohen in his backfield when talking about the Packers' next opponent this week.

"I think they're an excellent combination when you look at running backs," McCarthy said. "I think when you want to feature a runner, to have a complement is, frankly, a lot of fun as an offensive coordinator. When you have the ability to put different running styles on the field to attack a defense, I think it's definitely a benefit to the offense."

Howard had only 59 yards on 22 carries in the Bears' first two games - losses to the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers - after suffering the shoulder injury in the opener.

Howard said he was more disappointed by Chicago's losses than by his lack of production. The two might be linked: The Bears had a 3-4 record when Howard surpassed 90 rushing yards and an 0-9 mark when he didn't in 2016.

The return of three-time Pro Bowl guard Kyle Long on Sunday helped boost the Bears' running game after he'd missed the first two games.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM'S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

The third game of the season also was when Howard broke out last season.

He entered the 2016 season No. 3 on the Chicago depth chart behind Jeremy Langford and Ka'Deem Carey. In the first two games of the season, he had three carries. With Carey already out, Langford got hurt in the third game. On his first carry, Howard broke a 36-yard run.

The next week, Howard was in the starting lineup and produced 111 rushing yards on his way to 1,313 for the season, the second-most in the NFL in 2016. He went to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

A prep standout at Gardendale, Howard set UAB's single-season rushing record in 2014. But he had to transfer after the Blazers shut down their football program, and he spent a season at Indiana between UAB and the NFL.

The Bears and Packers kick off at 7:25 p.m. CDT Thursday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The game will be televised by CBS and NFL Network and streamed by Amazon Prime.

The teams have squared off more times than any rivals in NFL history, and the series is deadlocked at 94 victories apiece with six ties entering Thursday night's game. Green Bay has outscored Chicago 3,335-3,331 in the series.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.