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James Cook ran for 111 yards and two touchdowns in the Buffalo Bills’ overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams, and his head coach still spent Tuesday talking about taking the ball away from him. Joe Brady made it clear that Cook’s two fumbles Monday night, including one in overtime, outweighed the good stuff.
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“It’s got to improve, or the carries are going to decrease,” Brady said.
Brady didn’t pile on, and he made a point of praising how Cook is running. But he also said the Bills’ formula for losing is simple, and Cook has been feeding it.
“Right now we’re putting the ball in harm’s way, and we know the way that we lose football games is we turn the ball over, right?” Brady said. “And look, he’s doing so many good things running the football, right? And I don’t want to lose sight of how great he’s running the ball right now, but we’re putting the ball on the ground and it’s negating all the positive.”
The overtime fumble nearly cost Buffalo the game. Josh Allen had just hit Khalil Shakir for 57 yards when Nate Landman knocked the ball loose from Cook and Aaron Donald recovered it at the Rams’ 20. The Bills needed a blocked field goal by Greg Rousseau and a 45-yarder from Tyler Bass to escape with a 37-34 win.
It also wasn’t a one-time problem. Cook has fumbled four times in five games this season after putting the ball on the ground six times in 2025, according to Pro Football Reference. He’s run 95 times for 532 yards and five touchdowns so far, which is exactly why Brady kept sending him back out.
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“I have all the confidence in them. That’s why I put them right back out there,” Brady said. “But obviously, at some point there has to be consequences to when we’re putting negative stuff out there.”
If the carries do shift, Ty Johnson has been the No. 2 back, with Ray Davis behind him. Davis has only four carries this season.
Brady also warned against letting a win paper over the problem. “We can’t confuse, because we won the game, that that’s okay,” he said. The 4-1 Bills face the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 6, and how many times Cook touches the ball in that one will say a lot about how serious the warning was.
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This story was originally published October 13, 2026 at 2:58 PM.