Bears Get the Cold Shoulder

WATCH BEARS AND BILLS VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Buffalo's physical running attack and defense kept Justin Fields and the Bears at bay, 35-13.

USA Today

The Buffalo Bills have answered many challenges as contenders for the AFC title.

So it wasn't surprising the Bills had an answer for Justin Fields' running and for the way the Bears were shutting down quarterback Josh Allen, as they came away on a frigid Christmas Eve with a 35-13 victory to clinch the AFC East title.

There were regrets on both sides of the ball for the Bears (3-12) as they suffered a franchise-record eighth straight defeat in 9-degree cold at Soldier Field.

There was the offense failing to score more than 13 points despite interceptions by Kyler Gordon and Nick Morrow and a fumble recovery by Elijah Hicks.

"It's just tough on our part, seeing them play such a good game and take the ball away as many times as they did and us not capitalize on them," Fields said. "So we've just got to do a better job of capitalizing on those opportunities and score touchdowns."

The Bears held Josh Allen to a 71.3 passer rating and 15 of 26 passing for 172 yards and receiver Stefon Diggs to two catches for 26 yards. However, the Bears had only 209 yards of offense as Buffalo's defense limited Fields to 119 yards passing and a season-low 11 yards rushing.

"The first drive I felt there were like explosive plays, explosive runs and stuff like that," Fields said. "Then, after that, I don't think we ran the ball well."

David Montgomery had 60 yards at halftime, 2 more yards in the second half. Khalil Herbert never got rolling in his return from a hip injury and had 7 yards.

Still, the Bears had a 10-6 halftime lead and starting the second half their defense did its part to lose the game. The Bills started relying on the running game, and Devin Singletary broke a 33 TD run untouched up the middle, then James Cook broke one 27 yards untouched after a lost fumble by Montgomery. The Bears never recovered from the 21-10 deficit.

"I think that our part in this game is really we didn't stop the run and we didn't win the critical moments," Morrow said.

The Bills had only seven carries by backs in the first half but finished the game with 17 more in the second half, as Singletary rushed for 106 yards on 12 carries and Cook 99 yards on 11.

"It's just being out of our gaps, not doing our jobs, not being physical," safety Jaquan Brisker said. "They were more physical and made a lot of great plays and things like that."

Buffalo put it away with Josh Allen's 4-yard TD run and his bootleg pass for 13 yards to Dawson Knox.

"The third quarter is where we didn't do a good enough job," coach Matt Eberflus said. "It wasn't good enough there in the third quarter.

"Situational football, also we need to be better at. I think we were 2 of 12 and they were 6 of 11 on third down. Red zone it was the same thing. It was lopsided that way."

About all the Bears had to show for their efforts were a 6-yard Fields TD pass to wide-open Dante Pettis on their first drive and field goals of 37 and 35 yards from Cairo Santos to show for their efforts.

The Bears produced 9 yards rushing on 12 attempts in the second half. Fields led them in rushing in the second half with 4 yards.

They also got Fields injured. His foot was stepped on when he threw his final pass, but it's not serious. And he aggravated his injured left shoulder but it's expected he'll be able to play out the year without problem.

Fields did produce one spark in the second half with his arm, as the Bears trailed 21-10. He hit Velus Jones on a 44-yard bomb but even that one went wasted. The drive died on downs at the 16.

The lack of his rushing yards on scrambles or designed plays seemed to cripple the No. 1 rushing team in the league. The Bills played their ends wide and forced Fields to give it to his backs.

"My hat's off to Buffalo," Eberflus said. "They did a good job. They did a good job of keeping him in there and when he tried to get out of there I thought they did a nice job of, the way they rush the quarterback, they certainly had a couple of guys assigned to him."

Now they can expect teams to copy the Buffalo approach to stopping Fields.

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