CHICAGO — Because of the weather system sweeping the country, the Buffalo Bills will have to spend the night in Chicago after their 35-13 win over the Bears in a Christmas Eve matinee game on Saturday.
The Bills provided a win away from home as a blizzard swept through home: Western New York.
"Listen, I know we can't get home," head coach Sean McDermott said via a pool report after the game.
"Everyone's health and safety is of the utmost importance, whether it's us or people back home. .. I don't want thinking, 'Oh, whoa is us.' I mean, there are a lot of military people who aren't able to come home at all right now, or people out there, emergency workers. I mean, yes, it's a shame we can't get home, but there are a lot of people who have got it a lot worse than we do out there, including some people back home right now."
He said if the team can’t be with with their families tonight on Christmas Eve, “there’s no other family I’d rather be with than them.”
The Bills' win clinched their third-straight AFC East title, after an era when the New England Patriots dominated the division. Buffalo clinched the postseason last week in a divisional win over the Miami Dolphins.
Some of the Bills' wins haven't been pretty, but most Super Bowl teams don't have a "sunshine and rainbows" path to their wins. Just ask the undefeated New England Patriots what happened to them when they met the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII back in 2007.
The Bills, now standing at 12-3, have a motto from McDermott. "Do your one-11th," meaning, when there are 11 guys on the field every play, what are you going to do to benefit your team?
2 On Your Side's Julianne Pelusi asked running back Devin Singletary, who became the first running back this season to hit over 100 yards rushing, what his performance meant doing his 1/11th.
"You doing your 1/11th is you having your brothers' back and doing what you're accountable to do, and that's your job. It's very important to me," Singletary said.
Singletary rushed for 106 yards, while rookie James Cook put up 99 yards on the ground, helping the Bills and their quarterback Josh Allen while he and his receivers were struggling to find a rhythm against the Bears.
Thriving off of a healthy run game at Soldier Field, the Bills offense was still missing some opportunities in the air. They ended up trailing the Bears 10-6 at halftime.
After Allen's second interception of the game, early in the third quarter, he needed to rely on his defense when the Bills lead became a one-score game.
Veteran safety Jordan Poyer understood the defense needed to step up to support Allen because the Bills could put the game away, even after some of the quarterback's mistakes.
"He plays the hardest position on the field, and mistakes are going to happen. The defense is going to be able to counter that... (Allen's) going to figure it out... and he did," Poyer said.