It’s going to be a great week for the Buffalo Bills. Any win that you can get in the NFL whether it was a blowout or a close one, a win is a win. The Bills walked into Pittsburgh and literally ran all over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 26-7 beatdown.
Buffalo improves to 8-4 and stays in the playoff picture going into December. However, this conference is wide open and the Bills are still the #7 seed behind the Chargers and Colts. That just shows you how tight this playoff race is going into the final month of the regular season.
The Steelers’ defense has not lived up to what they were advertised as coming into this season, and the Bills just proved it by rushing for 249 yards, with 144 of those yards going to James Cook who just once again keeps proving why the Bills were smart to pay him before the season started.
He carried the ball 32 times and averaged 4.5 yards per carry. The Steelers stood no chance at stopping him.
In addition, with the Bills rushing for 249 yards, it's the most rushing yards since 1975 that the Steelers have given up, ironically to the Bills where Buffalo ran for 310 yards, per the Bills' PR team.
James Cook Week 13 stat proves how valuable he was in Bills' win
According to Carl Jones and NextGenStats, Cook rushed for 60 yards before any sort of contact, which was his 2nd most in a game this season. Jones also mentioned that he did this without his starting tackles in Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown.
James Cook had 60 yards BEFORE contact against the Steelers. His 2nd most in a game this season
— Carl Jones (@Jones11_) December 1, 2025
Super impressive considering the Bills were without both starting OTs@NextGenStats
This is Cook’s seventh game rushing for over 100 yards, proving that without him, the Bills don’t do as well on offense. As the weather continues to get colder, the Bills will need to rely on him to protect the rock especially with some tough opponents coming up this month.
Cook is having himself yet another phenomenal year and his contract is starting to look like a steal for this Bills team. If they can just add more weapons on the outside to take some pressure off of him, he could become even better after this season.