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Carucci Take 2: Defense dominates as Bills win 3rd straight division crown in the cold

WGRZ Bills/NFL Insider Vic Carucci says the biggest story of the game was Buffalo defense, which contained the NFL’s top-ranked rushing offense.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ 35-13 victory against the Chicago Bears on Saturday, allowing them to clinch their third straight AFC East championship, at Soldier Field:

1. In a game where the Bills scored 35 points, you might assume that the biggest story of the game was their offense. It wasn’t. It was their defense.

Buffalo’s D did an excellent job of containing the NFL’s top-ranked rushing offense, holding the Bears to 80 yards on the ground and an averaging of 2.8 yards per carry. Justin Fields, who entered the game as the league’s top rushing quarterback with 1,000 yards, ran for a mere 11 yards on seven attempts.

The lone hope the 3-12 Bears had to win was to run all over the Bills the way the Miami Dolphins did a week earlier. It never came close to happening.

Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano led the way with nine and six tackles, respectively. They and other Bills defenders spent much of the game in the Bears’ backfield.

2. The Bills’ rushing attack was exceptional and the only part of the team’s offense that functioned with consistent efficiency in the bitter cold.

Granted, the Bears had the 27th-ranked run defense, but let’s give credit to the Bills for generating 254 yards on the ground and averaging 8.2 yards per carry. Let’s give credit to Devin Singletary and James Cook for rushing for 106 and 99 yards, respectively. Each also ran for a touchdown, as did Josh Allen, who chipped in 41 rushing yards. And let’s give credit to the Bills’ offensive line, which despite missing Mitch Morse (concussion), provided substantial push to open holes.

The Bills’ commitment to the run, 31 carries to 26 pass attempts, also was a factor. If anything, the Bills should have done more running.

3. Which takes us to Josh Allen and the Bills’ passing game, which was poor.

Allen threw for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but also had two terrible interceptions. The first came when, looking for Isaiah McKenzie in the end zone, he threw into double coverage. The second came when, attempting a short throw to James Cook, he overthrew the running back. Allen also nearly was picked off on a silly cross-body throw.

Once again, Stefon Diggs was an afterthought in the Bills’ offense. He was targeted twice and caught both passes for 26 yards, with a long of 15.

4. The Bills had a penalty problem that could be viewed as troubling … unless it was symptomatic of playing down to the poor competition.

I’ll vote for the latter, though it’s something the Bills need to clean up. They had nine accepted penalties against the Bears for minus-72 yards, while Chicago had only two accepted penalties for minus-15 yards.

The Bills had a bevy of holding calls. That isn’t much of a problem when the opponent poses little, to no, threat. It will be an issue against better teams.

5. Speaking of better teams … the best remaining opponent on the Bills’ schedule is the one they face a week from Monday night, the Cincinnati Bengals.

This is a game that is the truest measurement to date of the Bills’ stature as a Super Bowl contender. It’s fair to say that winning a game when they don’t play their best (especially when it came to throwing the ball), as was the case Saturday, is a sign of a Super Bowl-worthy club.

However, beating the Bengals on the road, which would go a long way toward helping the Bills secure the top seed in the AFC playoffs, would make a more emphatic statement that this 12-3 squad is likely to fulfill expectations of playing for the Lombardi Trophy.

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