ORCHARD PARK—Linebacker Khalil Mack broke into a wide grin when it was pointed out the Bears defense didn’t need him for a second straight week.
”Ha, I might be looking for another job here soon,” Mack joked.
Sidelined by a right ankle injury, Mack had plenty of reason to joke.He had just finished watching his teammates force four turnovers, including two returned for touchdowns 3 1/2 minutes apart in the second quarter of a 41-9 rout over the Bills in what proved to be another comedy of errors for Buffalo’s anemic offense on Sunday.Sandwiched between Jordan Howard’s two touchdown runs, Eddie Jackson scored on a 65-yard fumble return and Leonard Floyd returned a tipped pass during Chicago’s decisive 28-point second-quarter surge.
”It’s always great to go out and perform the way we did,” linebacker Roquan Smith said. ”We definitely did focus on getting the ball out, and we knew when they do come, they come in bunches. So that was one of the main things.”
The only disappointment, perhaps, was becoming Buffalo’s first opponent in three weeks to give up a Bills touchdown. It didn’t happen until quarterback Nathan Peterman scored on a 1-yard run with 5:41 left.It was the first TD run the Bears have allowed this season, and it ended the Bills’ touchdown drought at 187 minutes and 19 seconds – dating to Peterman’s 16-yard pass to Zay Jones in a 20-13 loss at Houston on Oct. 14.The Bears, coming off a 24-10 win over the New York Jets, won their second in a row and improved to 5-3 to match their best start to a season through eight games since 2013.And the Bears are winning without Mack, the 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who was acquired in a trade from Oakland just before the start of the season.The Bills are going from bad to worse in losing their fourth straight, and dropping to 2-7 – their worst record through nine games since a 1-8 start in 2010.Buffalo hasn’t topped 10 points five times this season, and the four turnovers were one short of a season-worst. The Bills had five in a 37-5 loss at Indianapolis two weeks ago.