Bills Shut Down Raiders RB Josh Jacobs in Historical Fashion

The Buffalo Bills' run defense was a major weakness in Week 1, but became a major strength in Week 2.

Coming out of the Buffalo Bills' season-opening loss to the New York Jets, one of the major talking points was just how poor the run defense performed.

The Jets gashed the Bills' run defense on Monday for 172 yards on 28 carries, an average of over six yards per carry. New York running back Breece Hall had 10 carries for 127 yards by himself, including a huge 83-yard run in the second quarter.

Throughout the week, the Bills have placed an emphasis on stopping the run, with coach Sean McDermott stressing the need to be more physical at the point of attack. With the Las Vegas Raiders and 2022 leading rusher Josh Jacobs coming to town, it was looking to be a trial by fire.

In a show of how big a difference one week can make, the Bills' run defense didn't just improve against the Raiders, but was outright dominant. Buffalo allowed just 55 rushing yards on 3.7 yards per carry to put on a defensive clinic.

Most impressively, the Bills were able to take Jacobs out of the game completely. On nine attempts, Jacobs had -2 yards and his longest carry of the day went just three yards.

Per Pro Football Talk, the Bills made history in shutting down Jacobs, as he became “the first reigning NFL rushing champion since the 1970 merger to finish a game with negative rushing yards.” 

On 15 rushing attempts, the Raiders only gained 10 or more yards once. That came on their first possession, which was also their only touchdown drive of the day, when rookie Tre Tucker broke off 34 yards. After that, Vegas' run game was completely ineffective.

"I wouldn't say we expected that, but, you know, definitely a heavy focus on the run game this week," linebacker Terrel Bernard said after the game. "Trying to stop the run and make them one-dimensional."

The Bills came into the game with the plan of taking away the run, and they executed it to perfection. It helps that they jumped out to an early lead, forcing the Raiders to go more pass-heavy in an attempt to come back. Additionally, the fact that Buffalo's offense held the ball for over 40 minutes helped take away the run as well.

The Bills had an impressive showing all around on Sunday, but the fact that their run defense looked so much better than just a few days prior may be the most impressive feat of all.