By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Writer
Watching James Cook tear through the Panthers defense, it was difficult to appreciate what you were seeing.
The Bills fourth-year running back made it look so easy and those 216 yards on 19 carries seemed a feat he could duplicate in any game.
But alas, he made the record book.
In the 65-year history of the Buffalo franchise there have been only 10 200-yard games and six of them belong to O.J. Simpson.
In 1963, Cookie Gilchrist had a 243-yard game against the Jets.Ten years later, O.J. got the first of his half-dozen, a 250-yard effort against the Patriots in Foxboro that stood as an NFL record for a short time. That same year, 1973, he went for 200 yards against the Jets in the snow at Shea Stadium in the season finale, the final carry giving him the then-league record 2003 yards.
In 1975, he burned the Steelers for 227 yards and a year later, on Thanksgiving at the Silverdome in Detroit, he reset the NFL standard with 273 yards, still the franchise record. Later that season he burned Miami for 203 yards.
INTERESTINGLY, Cook’s effort in Charlotte was the most for Buffalo since O.J.’s performance against the Lions.
Since then, in 1978, Terry Miller went for 208 against the Giants, Greg Bell in 1984 against the Cowboys had 206, Fred Jackson totaled 212 in 2010 and it was 15 years later that Cook added his 216, a figure that would have ballooned had he carried the ball in the fourth quarter.
In the process, Cook had a career-long 64-yard sprint for a touchdown and, in the third quarter, added a 21-yarder for a score.
AFTER THE game, quarterback Josh Allen said commented on Cook’s electric effort.
“When you have a back like James Cook … you let him cook,” he said, noting ,”the more times we get the ball in his hands, the better we’re going to be.”
Tight end Dalton Kincaid added, “He’s got the capability to break one at any moment. It’s a lot of fun because you know as soon as he gets by that last guy, he’s gone.”
In assessing Cook’s performance, coach Sean McDermott pointed out, “There was an attitude that came with that. He breaks through into the second level of the defense and you’ve got wide receivers and tight ends blocking (for him). He’s of this mindset (where), he’s going, he’s going. And that’s a collective mindset.”
And worth 216 yards.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
