CHICAGO — Game day inactives:
As reported on Thursday the Buffalo Bills will be without center Mitch Morse and defensive end Boogie Basham on Saturday, but defensive tackles Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips are healthy enough to play against Chicago.
Cornerback Xavier Rhodes, safety Dean Marlowe, linebacker Baylon Spector, offensive lineman Justin Murray, and tight end Tommy Sweeney are also inactive against the Bears.
Wide receiver Cole Beasley and edge rusher Kingsley Jonathan were elevated from the Bills' practice squad on Friday.
Making the trip:
The Buffalo Bills beat a nationally historic winter storm traveling a day early for Chicago to face the Bears.
A win in a bitter-cold Chicago would secure a third-straight AFC East championship for the Bills, as an historic winter storm rocks the entire country.
"The snow will probably be over, but the wind and cold will not. While the wind speed and gust speed are still in question, the direction is not," WGRZ meteorologist Elyse Smith forecasted. "Winds Saturday will be out of the north/northwest, ushering in extremely cold temperatures and wind chill."
The Bears are sitting at 3-11 on the season, while the Bills are 11-3. Why could Saturday be a potential 'trap game' for Buffalo in Chicago, on top of the weather?
Justin Fields:
Even with seven-straight losses, Chicago's second-year quarterback out of Ohio State Justin Fields will threaten a Bills run defense that allowed 188 yards on the ground in a 32-29 win over the Miami Dolphins in the previous week.
Fields has already ran for 1,000 yards, which leads the league as a quarterback and is tied as seventh overall, in 13 games this season.
But the Bills have Josh Allen:
Josh Allen has rushed for 705 yards over 14 games this season, ranked fourth among NFL quarterbacks. But Allen averages 275.5 per game in the air, compared to 157.5 per game from Fields.
Allen was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the 10th time in his career after throwing for 304 yards and four touchdowns in the Bills 32-29 win over the Miami Dolphins last Saturday.
Weather adjustments:
Adapting to sudden weather adjustments and being flexible to these changes has almost become a part of the job for the Bills players and staff this season especially.
The past few weeks of the Bills schedule, for the most part, has been affected by snow or other winter weather conditions. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the Bills had to dig themselves out of seven feet of snow in Orchard Park in time to make it to Detroit for what was supposed to be a home game in Buffalo.
As the team originally prepared to leave for their Christmas eve game in Chicago on Friday evening, a snowy-disaster was set to form right in time for the weekend. The Bills staff decided that leaving a day earlier on Thursday night would be the smartest and safest idea.
Most, if not all, Bills players seemed to be just fine with the early flight out. Whether that is because they are not surprised by it happening, or it just doesn't bother them, their attitudes towards the change were in the right place.
"We've been here before and it's gonna be hard to beat that Friday that it snowed all day and then trying to dig out of six feet," Bills long snapper Reid Ferguson said. "That's the precedent we set. It's like, if we can get through six, seven feet of snow, whatever it was, I think we can leave twelve hours early for a game on Saturday."
"The coaches are doing whatever we have to do to get a win," Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins said. "They don't want anything to come between our mental state of playing and being nervous about flying. So, we're just leaving a little bit of time early so we can get there safe and calm so we can have a day of relaxation and work so we can get to gameday. It's calm, cool and collective, and we know exactly what to do and we're gonna go ahead and do it."
The Bills left at 7 P.M. on Thursday evening and landed in Chicago right before the historic blizzard took over the city of Buffalo early Friday morning.
Bills and Bears history:
The last regular season matchup between the two teams was in November of 2018 when the Bears dominated the Bills at Highmark Stadium with a final of 41-9.
Saturday's Bills and Bears game will count as Buffalo's first game in Chicago since the 2014 season.
Buffalo and Chicago have played each other in the regular or postseason for a total of 13 times with the Bears winning eight of those games and Buffalo winning five.