Buffalo Bills put up season-high rushing yards, run through Chicago Bears

CHICAGO – Good football teams have multiple ways to beat an opponent.

The Bills, one of the best teams in the NFL, are known for slinging the football around the yard with quarterback Josh Allen. On Sunday, they saw cold, windy conditions in Chicago and an opponent in the Bears who ranks near the bottom of the league against the run.

So they adjusted the game plan.

The Bills ran for a season-high 254 rushing yards Saturday at Soldier Field in a win over the Bears, 35-13. Buffalo’s previous season high was 175 rushing yards in an overtime game against Minnesota. The Bears hung around in the first half, taking a four-point lead into halftime, but the Bills punched them in the mouth to start the third quarter.

Buffalo opened up the second half with back-to-back touchdown-scoring drives. Running back Devin Singletary ran in a 33-yard score and backup running back James Cook scored a 27-yard touchdown to put the Bills firmly ahead on a cold and windy day in Chicago.

The temperature at kickoff was 9 degrees with a minus-12 wind chill. Winds were over 20 miles per hour with gusts in the 30s. It was the seventh-coldest game in Chicago since at least 1963, according to the Bears. The announced attendance was 59,929 tickets sold, but the actual attendance was likely much smaller in the Christmas Eve contest.

The Bills, who have plenty of cold-weather experience, elected to keep the ball on the ground for much of the game.

“[We were] out of our gaps, not doing our jobs, not being physical,” rookie safety Jaquan Brisker said. “They were more physical. Made a lot of great plays.”

Singletary led the Bills with 106 rushing yards and a touchdown on 12 attempts. Cook finished the afternoon with 99 yards and a touchdown on 11 attempts. Singletary’s 33-yard touchdown gave Buffalo its first lead minutes after halftime ended.

Linebacker Nicholas Morrow said the Bills made a good call when the Bears were bringing pressure. Buffalo pulled the right tackle to the middle of the formation just after the snap, which led to a man advantage. Brisker had a shot at a tackle but was crossed up.

“Guys not where they need to be doing their responsibility,” head coach Matt Eberflus said when diagnosing the issues. “Then when the ball gets through there into the secondary, then you’ve got your middle of the field safety, he’s got to be able to work inside out.”

On the other side of the ball, the Bills were doing everything they could to keep the ball out of Justin Fields’ hands. Fields, who leads NFL QBs in rushing this season with more than 1,000 yards, ran for 11 yards on seven carries.

“They did a good job bringing pressure and forcing us to go where they wanted to,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “Bringing pressure off the back side and they’ve got good players up front. Just forcing it where they want it to.”

The Bills forced Fields to hand it off on his run-pass options, and then their defense did a nice job bottling up running back David Montgomery. Montgomery finished with 62 yards on 16 carries and also caught four passes for 22 yards.

The Bears dropped to 3-12 on the season with two games remaining. Their offense mustered just 13 points and went 2-for-12 on third downs. They totaled 80 rushing yards for the game.

The offense picked up just two first downs in the second half when Fields was in the game. It added a couple more first downs in garbage time with Nathan Peterman playing quarterback. After the game’s opening drive, when Fields found receiver Dante Pettis for the Bears’ only touchdown of the game, the offense repeatedly stalled.

“The first drive, I felt like we were [having] explosive plays, explosive runs and stuff like that,” Fields said. “After that, I don’t think we ran the ball well.”

Rookie receiver Velus Jones Jr. caught a 44-yard deep ball from Fields, but that was the only explosive play in the second half for the Bears offense.