Buffalo Bills running back James Cook had a career year in 2024, rushing for over 1,000 yards for the second straight season and tying a single-season franchise record with 16 rushing touchdowns. He tied
Hall of Fame running back O.J. Simpson when he scored his 16th touchdown last season, and last week, he tied another franchise record Simpson shares.
Cook scored a rushing touchdown during Thursday night’s 31-21 victory over the Miami Dolphins. It was the seventh straight regular-season game that Cook had scored a rushing touchdown, tying a franchise record held by three players. Simpson did it in 1975, and he missed scoring a touchdown in all 14 games of the year by just one contest, as he scored in six straight games to start the season before closing out the year with touchdowns in seven straight games.
Cookie Gilchrist also accomplished the feat, starting his streak on September 30, 1962 in a loss to the Dallas Texans (today’s Kansas City Chiefs). He scored nine rushing touchdowns in that seven-game span, with the last coming in a victory over the San Diego Chargers on Veteran’s Day of that same year. Gilchrist scored 13 rushing touchdowns overall in that season.
The most recent player to accomplish the feat was Robb Riddick, doing so during the 1988 season, which was both his best and final season in the NFL. Riddick was part of a three-headed monster in the Bills’ backfield that included 1986 first-round draft choice Ronnie Harmon and 1988 second-round draft choice Thurman Thomas.
Of course, one of those players would go on to the Hall of Fame, as Thomas took the lead in the backfield starting in 1989 and did not relinquish that role until the 1997 season. Riddick, though, was the goal-line back, scoring 12 rushing touchdowns that year and adding another in the playoffs. He began his streak in a Week 4 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers and closed it during a 31-6 November drubbing of the Miami Dolphins.
If Cook scores one rushing touchdown this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, he will hold the franchise record himself. He scored rushing touchdowns in each of Buffalo’s final four games of the 2024 season, and he has scored at least one rushing touchdown in each contest so far this year.
The Saints are middle-of-the-pack this season in rushing defense, ranking No. 14 in rushing yards allowed so far. They have allowed two rushing touchdowns so far.
