The Buffalo Bills steamrolled the New York Jets 30-10 thanks in large part to running back James Cook\u2019s individual efforts. Cook was dynamic, proving to be too much to handle inside or outside the hashes, and far too fast for anyone left in his wake.<\/p>\n
His 44-yard touchdown run will likely be one of the league\u2019s biggest highlights of Week 2, a true \u201cchef\u2019s kiss\u201d moment. He finished with 21 carries for 132 yards and pair of touchdowns before taking a seat. However, it was his last carry that could reverberate louder than necessary in the days ahead.<\/p>\n
Cook\u2019s final carry was a fumble, fortunately recovered by the offense when it was close to the end zone. It was a fantastic defensive play by the Jets defender but, ultimately, also not a truly negative play for Buffalo. There\u2019s no knowing if Cook would have scored there, nor if the Jets would have figured things out on offense to take the football almost the entire length of the field for meaning points off a turnover.<\/p>\n
Despite that, Cook\u2019s latest fumble brings with it the ominous feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, \u2014 those moments early in Cook\u2019s career where turning the ball over meant an extended trip to the bench. We\u2019re unlikely to find out if Cook was taken out of the game due the game being in hand or for discipline. For now, we only know that Cook didn\u2019t see another carry after the fumble. We also know that Allen was still playing quarterback after Cook hit the sideline.<\/p>\n
So, who knows if McDermott\u2019s fumble doghouse is alive and well. If true, it\u2019s at best ridiculous. At worst, it\u2019s much worse than mind-boggling. Cook is arguably the most important player on offense not named Josh Allen. Sure, I\u2019d listen to those mentioning the entire offensive line in conversations that include Allen and Cook. The point is that Cook gives the Bills their best chance to win when he\u2019s on the field.<\/p>\n
Protecting Cook from physical wear and tear is wise, and important with a short turnaround this week that has the Bills hosting the Miami Dolphins Thursday evening. If Cook hit the sideline due to fumbling, it\u2019s time to begin asking important questions. The last thing Buffalo needs is for a healthy Cook to be unavailable in a huge game simply because McDermott believes benching him is the way correct the error.<\/p>\n
James Cook received a lucrative contract extension for a reason, and that was on full display against the Jets. Benching Cook in the future due to fumbles should never be part of the equation. For now, it\u2019s best to believe Cook was being spared from unnecessary contact ahead of a short week of prep in Week 3. One should hope it\u2019s also true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills steamrolled the New York Jets 30-10 thanks in large part to running back James Cook\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4424,7,6,320],"class_list":{"0":"post-369976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-buffalo-bills-discussion","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115208368310717688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}