Tomorrow afternoon, the Buffalo Bills will take the field in what could be the final time playing in the old Highmark Stadium. Wearing their throwback red helmets, Buffalo will take the field to host the New York Jets before they start to prepare for the playoffs.
Buffalo gave the Jets a 30-10 beatdown in Week 2 where the Bills’ defense only gave up 154 total yards…kind of surprising seeing as how Buffalo’s defense has performed all season long.
While the Jets have usual given Buffalo a lot of trouble, the Bills should be able to handle the Jets easily even if they don’t play their starters from start to finish.
A starter that the Bills will have to decide on how much they want him to play is running back James Cook. There have been time this season where Cook was Buffalo’s main reason why they won games. While Buffalo should be careful of how much Cook plays, there is another factor that they will have to decide.
James Cook set to do something that hasn't been done since 1976
According to the Buffalo Bills’ PR team, the last Bill to lead the NFL in rushing yards was O.J. Simpson back in 1976 with 1,503 yards. Heading into today’s game, Cook leads the NFL in rushing with 1,606 yards. Behind him is Jonathan Taylor (1,559 yards) and Derrick Henry (1,469 yards).
Don’t get me wrong, having Cook fully healthy for the playoffs is more important than being the top rusher in the league. At the same time, this would be such an amazing finish to the regular season for Cook, who was signed to an extension in the summer and overcoming all the doubts about him getting the extension.
In addition to this milestone, Cook can also tie Thurman Thomas for the most 100+ scrimmage yard games in a season in team history. He currently has 12 of those games.