Bills rushing champ faces biggest test yet in AFC wild-card clash

ORCHARD PARK - James Cook has enjoyed a historic season running the ball for the Buffalo Bills as he became their first NFL rushing champion since O.J. Simpson captured the last of his four titles in 1976.

But Cook and Buffalo’s outstanding offensive line will face its toughest test of the season in their AFC wildcard game Sunday when they go against the Jacksonville Jaguars’ No. 1-ranked run defense.

This might very well be the best strength vs. strength matchup that we’ll see in any of the six wildcard games this weekend.

“That was one of our goals, stopping the run is one of the three main goals in our defense,” Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd said. “We’re definitely proud of the effort and that’s a team award. Obviously, it starts up front, linebackers have to fit the gaps correctly, corners gotta tackle, so defensively that’s something that we’re definitely proud of and looking forward to continue finding ways to get better in the run game.”

The Jaguars allowed just 85.6 yards per game on the ground and they tied for second at 3.9 yards per attempt. They yielded the third-fewest runs of 10 yards or more at 34, and they tied for eighth at 13 rushing TDs allowed.

Only five teams managed to reach 100 yards rushing against Jacksonville, and the best individual day by a running back was Jonathan Taylor’s 74 yards for the Colts in Week 14. Cook had 12 games this season where he rushed for at least 74 yards, nine of those surpassing 100.

The caveat is that Jacksonville did not play a team that can compare to the success Buffalo has enjoyed on the ground. Among the Jaguars’ opponents, the best rushing offense they faced was the Rams who were seventh in the league at 126.6 yards per game. The Jaguars lost that game 35-7, though Los Angeles’ Kyren Williams - who finished sixth in the rushing race with 1,252 yards - managed only 54 yards on 12 carries.

In two victories over the Colts, the Jaguars limited Taylor - who finished third in the NFL rushing race behind Cook and Baltimore’s Derrick Henry - to 144 yards and two TDs on 42 carries, and his longest run was 14 yards. In their victory over the 49ers, they held Christian McCaffrey, who was eighth in the rushing race, to 49 yards on 17 carries. And in their loss to the Seahawks, they held the duo of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet to a combined 58 yards on 22 attempts.

“You don’t make it into the playoffs nowadays without being a strong defense that is going to be able to take away something, whether that’s the run or the pass,” Bills’ offensive coordinator Joe Brady said. “And they’ve played some of the top runners, right? Jonathan Taylor’s part of that division. They’ve played the top and they’re playing at such an elite level right now, that’s going to be a huge challenge, huge opportunity for us to go on the road and do that, but I believe it’s the challenge that we’ll be up for.”

Bills lead NFL in rushing: By the numbers

It’s a challenge that Buffalo should be up for, though. Led by Cook’s 1,621 yards, the Bills led the NFL in rushing at 159.6 yards per game and with 30 rushing touchdowns, they were No. 2 at 5.0 yards per attempt and in runs of at least 10 yards with 68, and they ranked third in overall success rate at 46.6% which measures the percentage of running plays that achieved the necessary yardage on each down to keep the offense in favorable down and distance.

Here’s another caveat, though. The Bills faced only four teams this year who finished in the top 10 in run defense. In those games, Cook had 44 yards against the No. 10 Ravens, 49 and 107 against the No. 6 Patriots, 48 against the No. 5 Buccaneers, and 116 against the No. 4 Texans. So, some good, some not so good, and the Bills went 3-2 in those games.

Jaguars coach Liam Coen admits that Buffalo’s dynamic run scheme and star running back will also be a big test for his defense.

“Yeah, they’re damn good at running the football, man. They are,” Coen said. “Aaron Kromer (the Bills’ offensive line coach), I’ve learned a lot of football from him and just sitting and listening to his meetings, his Friday running game meetings when I was in L.A.

“Just going and sitting in his meetings, you learn something every single day and he’s one of the best out there, honestly, if not the best in terms of how long he’s done it at such a high level and at different places doing it. He’s extremely cutting edge when it comes to the fundamentals and techniques of the position and has those guys playing at a really high level.”

When he was asked about Cook, Coen said, “Elusive, slippery, smooth. I mean the run against the Browns (a 44-yard TD) that has been all over the place, it was ridiculous. They had two guys unblocked in the hole and he just makes them both miss and he's off to the races and they use him a lot in the pass game as well. So, he's a dual threat. He's one of those guys that fits in the same mold as (McCaffrey and Falcons RB Bijan Robinson), those kinds of guys.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: James Cook and Bills run game face Jaguars’ No. 1 run defense