ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Discussions about the Buffalo Bills offense begin and end with Josh Allen.
Unless you ask the man himself about running back James Cook’s season.
“It’s been nothing but spectacular,” Allen said.
Cook quietly has assembled one of the most productive seasons for a franchise loaded with elite runners. In 13 games, he has rushed for 828 yards and 13 touchdowns while adding 29 receptions for 232 yards and another touchdown, yet not fumbling a single time.
Cook made the Pro Bowl last season when his 1,122 rushing yards finished fourth to Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry and Kyren Williams, but he entered this season with just four career rushing touchdowns, five fumbles and nine dropped passes through his first two NFL seasons.
He already has scored more touchdowns than O.J. Simpson and Thurman Thomas did in their MVP campaigns and has as many touchdowns as when Cookie Gilchrist earned AFL Player of the Year — and in fewer games than all of them. Buffalo’s legendary backs also averaged 6.3 fumbles those seasons.
“I just do me, man,” Cook said Wednesday in the Bills’ locker room. “I stay out of the (limelight) and just keep playing football. I don’t want all that attention. It’ll go noticed in its own way, so I just want to keep helping my team win games.”
Cook ran 14 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns Sunday to help defeat the Detroit Lions in Ford Field.
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On the Bills’ first possession after halftime, he ran left, cut back between tackle Dion Dawkins and guard David Edwards and sprinted — almost untouched — for a 41-yard TD. Lions safety Kerby Joseph slowed him down by yanking one of Cook’s dreadlocks from behind, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. Nor was safety Jamal Adams’ tackle attempt. Cook merely shoved Adams in the sternum and kept going.
“He’s been awesome, running the ball extremely hard out of the backfield,” Allen said. “He’s making plays. He’s blocking. You watch him go run and pick people up off the ground, pick up linemen. He’s celebrating in the end zone with the guys.
“You guys know, when James first got here, he was a tough cookie to crack. He didn’t want to talk a lot. But he’s having fun out there. He’s enjoying the guys that he’s with. He’s a complete football player.”
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Cook was asked whether 13 touchdowns or zero fumbles is the more impressive stat. He leaned toward a locker stall and knocked the wood.
The only players this year with zero fumbles on more touches are Bijan Robinson (291), Najee Harris (259, with an asterisk), Joe Mixon (249) and Kareem Hunt (201).
Pro Football Focus has charted Cook with three dropped passes, but none since a screen in Week 10 against the Indianapolis Colts. His 82.9 catch percentage is 2.2 points better than slot receiver Khalil Shakir. Rookie tailback Ray Davis has a team-high 92.9 catch percentage but on just 14 targets.
“The flow of the game, speed of the game, everything is clicking for him,” Bills right tackle Spencer Brown said. “He accompanies Josh’s game and our passing super well. He can catch out of the backfield.
“He’s an all-around back who’s doing it every week for us.”
Cook and Simpson are the only Bills to rush for at least 13 touchdowns through their first 13 games.
“That’s good,” Cook said, “but I just want to keep finding ways to get better.”
Simpson holds the club record with 16 rushing TDs (he added seven more on receptions) in his epic 1975 campaign, when NFL schedules were just 14 games.
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No one has come close to Simpson’s total touchdowns record despite extra games. The NFL went to 16 games in 1978 and tacked on a 17th game three years ago.
Cook, however, hasn’t required any bonus time. Buffalo has played 14 games, and Cook missed Week 6 against the New York Jets because of a toe injury. Yet he already has become the first Bills running back with double-digit rushing touchdowns in seven seasons. No Bills player who finished a season with at least nine rushing TDs did so in fewer than 14 games.
Allen ranks second in club history with 15 rushing touchdowns in 17 games last year. He scored eight over a five-game span in November and December.
Gilchrist’s best scoring season (14 games in 1962) was 13 rushing and 15 scrimmage TDs. LeSean McCoy (15 games in 2016) and Travis Henry (16 games in 2002) each rushed for 13 TDs and caught another. Willis McGahee (16 games in 2004) also ran for 13 TDs but didn’t score any through the air.
Thomas led the NFL in scrimmage yards four straight seasons and was voted 1991 MVP, but he never scored more than the 11 rushing or the 13 scrimmage TDs he had in 16 games a year earlier.
Cook’s pursuit of family bragging rights won’t be any easier than the Bills’ record. In 2020, big brother Dalvin Cook ran for 16 touchdowns and caught another with the Minnesota Vikings.
Playing out the string
The Bills’ final three matchups are weird. Starting three days before Christmas in Highmark Stadium, they will meet the New England Patriots for the first time this year, host the New York Jets and then finish with the Patriots in Gillette Stadium.
The Bills are two games behind the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC’s top seed, but the Patriots and Jets have nothing to play for but pride.
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How does Sean McDermott plan to keep his players sharp heading into the postseason?
“A winner’s mindset, really, a champion’s mindset, has a certain degree of discipline that goes along with it,” McDermott said. “They know what they’re after. That’s the type of discipline we have to have moving forward every week.
“Every week, it’s a new challenge, and we certainly have a ton of respect for this football team, especially since their quarterback (Drake Maye) has taken over. Most importantly, our mindset has to be right.”
McDermott salutes Bill Belichick’s decision
Due to the scheduling quirk, McDermott will finally be coaching against the Patriots for the first time without Bill Belichick on the other sideline. Belichick last week took over the University of North Carolina’s program 11 months after his Patriots divorce.
“Hall of Fame coach, one of the best ever if not the best ever to do it,” McDermott said. “I think if you could get inside the mind, for me, as a person who loves to learn from other people, if you could get inside the mind of someone like that and kind of go through the journey of their life and career, on the field, off the field, I think that’s pretty cool.
“I’m sure he has a ton of reasons for doing it, and I respect it.”
McDermott lost his first six games against Belichick, which not coincidentally also featured Tom Brady at quarterback, and then went 7-2, including a playoff victory three years ago.
(Photo: Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)
