Chill! Josh Allen's Bills Clinch AFC East - And Raise Concerns - in Win at Bears
The Buffalo Bills are your NFL playoffs-bound AFC East champion after a hard-fought 35-13 Christmas Eve win at the Chicago Bears that marks a continuation of achievements and a stacking-up of goals reached. ...
And some lingering questions from critics about the offense's lack of consistent "crispness.''
First, to the goals ...
"That's the No. 1 thing coach (Sean) McDermott preaches,'' QB Josh Allen said of a target-oriented focus as he prepared for this week. "You can't win the Super Bowl unless you make the playoffs. So that's goal No. 1 (sealing up a playoff berth, accomplished in last week's win over Miami) down.
"Goal No. 2 now is to clinch the division.''
Done. And done.
The Bills are now 12-3 and winners of six straight - a sort of oddity in this parity-centric league - and they will play in the postseason for the fifth season in a row.
Oh, and a division title around here for the third straight season.
And yet ... while maybe the Bills Mafia worriers should chill (an easy thing to literally do right now in Buffalo, Chicago and many other U.S. cities) ... it can be argued that while the record keeps getting better, Allen and the offense do not.
The next goal? Sew up the No. 1 seed in the AFC, thus earning the reward of the all-important first-bye. That bye makes the path easier, though "easy'' is a relative word, in the postseason and even, at times in this chilly meeting at Soldier Field against the have-not Bears.
There was some of the best of QB Allen here ...
And then as we're sure Allen will be quick to concede, there was too much of a lesser version of the MVP candidate, who finished a modest 15 of 26 for 172 yards and two interceptions.
Yes, he has the two TD passes, too, though the late one came in garbage time. And as always, Josh the Runner cannot be ignored; he carried six times for 41 yards and another score.
But Bills critics will wonder why - speaking of The Runners - why McDermott didn't choose to grind this thing out on the legs of Devin Singletary (12 carries, 106 yards) and James Cook (11 for 99). ... leading those critics to wonder if Buffalo is too in love with its "high-octane'' reputation.
But even as Buffalo's defense recognized young Chicago QB Justin Fields as a threat, especially as a runner who came into the game with 1,000 yards rushing. ... and handled him, as he ran just seven times for 11 yards ... the Bills were looking to be more "crisp'' on this day.
And the only thing that was "crisp'' about it was the 11-degrees temperatures.
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