DETROIT -- The more Reggie Bush gets the ball, the more effective he is.
The more effective Bush is, the more effective the rest of the running backs are.
In the Lions' 24-7 loss at Carolina last week, Bush ran the ball just six times for 26 yards.
In the Lions' 19-7 win at home against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Bush had 12 carries for 61 yards.
Against Carolina, the Lions had a total of 18 carries for 70 yards.
"We feel like with our run game and the backs that we have on this team, when we're running the ball well, there's nobody that can stop us," Bush said. "Even if they slow us down the first half, like Green Bay did, if we just keep running the ball and trusting and being patient, it's gonna happen, it's gonna break."
The Lions had just 44 yards rushing in the first half but finished with 115.
Early in the fourth quarter, Bush finished off a 10-play, 75-yard drive with a 26-yard run, extending the lead to 19-7.
"It felt really good," Bush said. "It was a needed touchdown at a crucial point in the game."
Bush also had six receptions for 38 yards.
"Reggie's a phenomenal player," receiver Golden Tate said. "I think he's on year nine or 10 and still holding up strong. He still has passion for the game, runs hard and makes things happen. He can catch the ball in the backfield and still go for 10-15 yards.
"That's great to have back there. It makes it easier on Matt (Stafford) to find him, and once he gets the ball to him, we just trust that Reggie's going to make something happen. He hasn't let us down so far."
Stafford agreed that Bush's contributions were a major reason for the victory.
"He was great in the passing game, really good in the running game and was ball-secure," Stafford said. "It was awesome. He's a guy that creates matchup issues, and when we get him in space, he's electric and showed that tonight."
On the Lions' final drive, they threw one pass to Tate and used a combination of Joique Bell (15 carries for 33 yards), Bush and Theo Riddick (three for 16) to get to the two-minute warning.
When the Packers ran out of timeouts, Stafford was able to just take a knee to run out the clock.
"Green Bay did a good job in the first half of kind of slowing us down, but I think we kind of wore them down a little bit throughout the course of the game and were able to put together a really good drive to end the game," Bush said.
Center Dominic Raiola said the game ended just the way they wanted.
"That's a big thing we're preaching this year -- finishing, finishing games, finishing with the ball in our hands," Raiola said. "We were able to do that. We did it the first week, we did it this week."
KICKING SITUATION STILL A QUANDARY
The Lions were spoiled for decades with place-kickers. First Eddie Murray and then Jason Hanson provided incredible stability to the position.
Those days are gone.
Veteran David Akers was somewhat shaky last year, and now rookie Nate Freese, a seventh-round draft pick out of Boston College, is also struggling.
Freese made a 30-yard field goal and missed a 41-yard field goal in Sunday's win over the Packers. He's made just 3 of 7 field goals this season.
"We'll have to evaluate and see where we were, see what the situation is, and we'll do that here shortly," coach Jim Caldwell said.
In his first season, in 1992, Hanson made 21 of 26 field goals. He missed 2 of 6 from 40-49 yards and 3 of 5 from 50-plus yards.
The Lions did try out three kickers this past week but did not sign anyone.
