ORCHARD PARK — Greg Rousseau found out about James Cook playing youth football against him at 10 years old in Florida.
“He’s certified. He’s a dog.”
Rousseau says Cook is a legend in Florida. Well, it’s taken a little while for everyone else to come around, including the Buffalo Bills. But both the Bills and the Cowboys were educated about Cook Sunday.
The national narrative surrounding the Bills is that Allen carries the team, that they ask him to make miraculous plays in order to win games. At the same time, Cook has shown flashes throughout the season, but disappears completely or for large stretches.
Cook was the team’s leading rusher (179 yards and a touchdown) and their leading receiver (42 yards and a touchdown), forcing the Bills not to take him out of the game, refusing to disappear until they waved the white flag with 10 minutes, 37 seconds left, signaling they were calling off the dogs in a 31-10 beatdown of the Cowboys.
Snapping a five-game winning streak in which Dallas beat opponents by more than 23 points on average would have been a feat in itself, but Buffalo did it with Allen completing just seven passes for 94 yards, his lowest total when starting a game he didn’t leave early due to injury since throwing for 82 yards in a 13-12 win over the Tennessee Titans in his fourth career start on Oct. 7, 2018.
Allen’s 15 attempts are the lowest number of his career in those such games, and instead, the Bills gashed a Cowboys defense ranked No. 3 in the NFL for a Sean McDermott-era best 266 yards rushing to move to 8-6 on the season and jumped from the No. 11 seed in the AFC to ninth with three games remaining.
“I work my tail off every day,” said Cook, whose 221 yards from scrimmage Sunday ranked third in the NFL this season. Miami’s De’Von Achane’s 233 against Denver in Week 3 is the most. “So the confidence level is gonna come in practice. Once you want to practice hard, and do the things right, it’s a confidence booster and it’s gonna show on Sundays.”
Cook became the first Bills player since LeSean McCoy in 2016 to crack 150 and it was the most since Fred Jackson ran for 212 in the 2009 season finale. He came into the day 13th in the NFL in rushing and left second, with his 968 yards trailing only San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey (1,177).
But Cook hasn’t had the consistency of a top-five rusher, with more games this season with fewer than 50 yards (four) than 100 yards (three). Twice Cook has had fewer than 10 attempts this season, including five attempts that netted minus-4 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5.
Then, of course, there was the game-opening fumble that saw him turn a benching into a 109-yard performance. And last week, Cook had 35 yards on four attempts on the second half’s opening drive against the Kansas City Chiefs, only to get three more carries the remainder of the game, despite averaging 5.8 yards per carry on 10 attempts and accounting for 141 yards from scrimmage.
Cook had struggled with drops and consistency in pass protection that saw backups cut into this workload. Against the Cowboys, though, the Bills didn’t fade away from Cook. Backups Ty Johnson and Latavius Murray weren’t used as changes of pace, but rather just to give Cook a breather from his career-high 25 attempts, besting his previous high of 17.
“Jimmy’s an easy guy to cheer for,” Bills right tackle Spencer Brown said. “Does everything right throughout the week, he compliments the offensive line after good drives, always says thanks. … He’s just a really, really good team guy that you really want to cheer for and see do well. … I think he’s really grown from that adversity early and he’s carrying over into late this year and it’s really showing.”
The Bills only strayed from the run briefly. After Murray capped the game-opening drive with a 2-yard touchdown run, Johnson started the next series with a 7-yard run. And then Allen threw two incompletions, one a drop by Stefon Diggs, to go three-and-out.
Three runs gained 12 yards on the first three plays, but Allen followed with three more incompletions — including a drop by rookie Dalton Kincaid — and the Cowboys bailed out the Bills by running over punter Sam Martin to extend the drive.
Another incompletion ensued, and then Allen hit Cook on a 24-yard catch-and-run on the final play of the first quarter to jumpstart Buffalo’s drive. Three runs — two by Cook — followed and then Allen hit Cook for an 18-yard touchdown catch, his second in as many weeks.
“The key is James Cook, having that mindset, having that mentality, putting his shoulder down, running through tackles,” Allen said. “In the pass game, making plays. And I know he’s going to beat himself up over that (drop) at the goal line. But you can’t ask him much more from the guy. He’s been working hard and I think he’s probably top-five most scrimmage yards in the league right now. And we’ve got to keep relying on him.”
The Bills attempted just eight more passes the rest of the game and the offensive line started to dig in. They moved the pile in scrums and overpowered a Cowboys defensive front banking on getting to rush the passer.
Bills tackle Dion Dawkins drove Dallas linebacker Damone Cook 20 yards on a block to help spring Cook on a 20-yard run that led to an Allen touchdown run, marking his 10th game with a passing touchdown and rushing touchdown this season, an NFL record.
And by the end of the game, the Bills offensive line could feel the Cowboys break en route to rushing for 266 yards, the most since running for 272 against the Miami Dolphins in Rex Ryan’s final game as head coach in 2016.
“Towards the end of the game, you could tell we were able to keep pushing, pushing, pushing and pushing, and the weather and everything else, I don’t think they really wanted to be there,” said Bills left guard Connor McGovern, who was signed away from Dallas during the offseason. “And then I’ve never had it before, at 11 minutes (left) to get pulled from the game.”