Bills tame Bears, clinch AFC East
CHICAGO >> Devin Singletary and James Cook ran for long touchdowns in the third quarter, and the Buffalo Bills clinched the AFC East title by beating the Bears 3513 on Saturday in one of the coldest games played in Chicago.
Josh Allen ran for a TD and threw for another in the game’s closing minutes, breaking a tie with Hall of Famer Dan Marino for the most touchdowns in a player’s first five NFL seasons. It highlighted an otherwise subpar outing that helped the Bills (123) secure their third straight division title with their sixth win in a row.
Buffalo remained on track for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Bills remain tied with West leader Kansas City, which beat Seattle, but Buffalo owns the head-tohead tiebreaker after defeating the Chiefs in October.
Chicago’s Justin Fields threw for 119 yards and a touchdown, but ran for a season-low 11 yards after joining Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson as the only QBs with 1,000 yards rushing last week.
The temperature at kickoff was 9 with a minus-12 wind chill — only three degrees warmer than the record low for a Bears home game. It was Buffalo’s coldest road game by temperature since at least 1967.
A small gathering of bundledup fans watched as the Bears grabbed a halftime lead. But Chicago (3-12) matched a franchise record with its eighth straight loss.
Singletary scored on a 33-yard run on the opening drive of the second half and finished with 106 yards in the game. Cook added 99, including a 27-yarder in the third following a fumble by the Bears’ David Montgomery, giving the Bills a 21-10 lead.
Chicago’s Cairo Santos kicked a field goal early in the fourth quarter that Nicholas Morrow set up by picking off an ill-advised pass. Allen scored from the 4 with just under four minutes remaining and threw a 13-yard TD to Dawson Knox with about a minute to play.
Allen finished with 172 yards,
two TD passes and two interceptions while facing a short-handed secondary. He broke the tie with Marino when he hit Gabe Davis with a 19-yarder in the first quarter for his 172nd scoring pass.
Stefon Diggs caught just two passes for 26 yards. He wasn’t targeted in the first two quarters even though the Bears placed top cornerback Jaylon Johnson (ring finger) on Friday.
Dante Pettis had a touchdown catch for Chicago. Kyler Gordon intercepted a pass near the goal line early in the second quarter, and the Bears joined the 1978 and 2002 teams as the only squads in franchise history to drop eight in a row.
INJURIES
Bills: RG Ryan Bates (knee) was hurt while blocking for Allen on a scramble late in the second quarter. He returned in the third.
Bears: OL Michael Schofield III (thumb) was injured on the game’s opening drive, but returned in the second quarter.
UP NEXT
Bills: Visit Cincinnati on Jan. 2.
Bears: Visit Detroit on Jan. 1.