But they know that if they don't find a rushing attack in the next week, they have almost no chance of extending it to three.

The Lions rushed for just 17 yards on 20 carries in Sunday's 12-10 win over Chicago, and the only carry longer than six yards came on wide receiver Reggie Swinton's 9-yard reverse. Swinton actually led the team in rushing with that carry, as tailbacks Shawn Bryson, Avon Cobourne and Olandis Gary combined for 10 yards on 17 rushes.

"I really thought the running game was making some progress -- we had 112 yards last week -- but it flopped in this game," coach Steve Mariucci said. "There seem to be a variety of reasons that it happened, and we are going to take a hard look at all of them."

Detroit takes a franchise-record 20-game road losing streak into Seattle on Sunday and then goes to Minnesota the following week. Both teams are 6-3, so Mariucci is feeling some pressure to find a solid ground game.

"We've got to find a way to fix this, because I don't want to be throwing the ball 45 times a game with a young quarterback," he said. "That's not the direction we want."

With Gary and Bryson struggling, the Lions tried Cobourne, who had been activated for special-teams duties, but he was also ineffective. The only candidate left is rookie Artose Pinner, who only began practicing last week after missing all of training camp and the first nine games with a broken leg.

"We aren't banking on Artose right now," Mariucci said. "He's been out there for a week, and he's got the soreness that we expected, so he probably won't be up for this week's game. But we do want to get him out there, and get a chance to see how he fits in and what he can do."

Despite having no support from the running game, quarterback Joey Harrington had one of his better days of the season, completing 24 of 38 passes for 238 yards and no interceptions.

"That might have been his best game as far as decision-making goes," Mariucci said. "We didn't turn the ball over, which is huge, and he seemed more willing to take shots down the field. One of the next steps he will take is to trust his protection and develop a little more patience to let things open up."