ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The game appeared largely out of reach.
Up 24-3 with 12:36 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Buffalo Bills were well on their way to finishing off a convincing performance at home against the Dallas Cowboys.
After an impressive catch by wide receiver Stefon Diggs on third-and-8 and a 12 men on the field penalty on Dallas, quarterback Josh Allen handed the ball off to running back James Cook on first-and-5 from the Cowboys' 24-yard line. He darted through a crowd of linemen, past a variety of additional Cowboys defenders and then flipped his way into the end zone.
"I just did it again," Cook said on using the celebration for a second straight week. "I don't know, I don't have a celebration, so I did it."
Whatever the reason, the flip served as an exclamation point for Cook's work and on the Bills' day. The first-team offense did not play another snap.
The Bills' running game had its best performance under coach Sean McDermott in the 31-10 win over the Cowboys. The team finished with 266 rushing yards and 179 of those came from Cook. He finished with 25 carries (averaging 7.2 yards per attempt) with the rushing score, in addition to two receptions for 42 yards with a receiving touchdown.
"Everything," tight end Dawson Knox said when asked what Cook did to be successful. "He's just a hell of a player, so giving him any space, giving him matchups on the outside in the pass game. [Interim offensive coordinator] Joe Brady does an awesome job, scheming that up, and then the o-linemen do a fantastic job, open up the holes for him. He's got crazy vision, too, so he's going to bounce it wherever he sees it."
The Bills' playoff odds moved to 62% with Sunday's win, per ESPN Analytics. A short week awaits with a trip to play the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, Peacock), followed by games against AFC East rivals the New England Patriots and at the Miami Dolphins. After a stretch of the season when the playoffs seemed out of reach for this team, the path and ability to make it there has never been clearer.
Winning out gives the Bills (8-6) the best chance at making the playoffs, with a chance at catching the Dolphins (10-4) still intact. Getting there will require Buffalo building off this performance, including a Cook-led running game that has jumped significantly since the team changed coordinators over a month ago.
"We understand what position we're in right now," Allen said. "We gotta win games. It doesn't matter how we get them done.
"We just trusted our guys up front and trusted our backs to make plays and they did."
While Allen said it wasn't necessarily the team's plan entering the week to run it at that level, rookie right guard O'Cyrus Torrence noted that the Bills were aware of how good the Cowboys' pass rush is, and that staying out of third-and-long situations would be important.
Once the game started, the Bills realized they could run the football against Dallas and kept pushing it. Buffalo was able to put together a 12-play drive, two 11-play drives, a 15-play drive and then the final six-play touchdown drive, controlling the time of possession for 35:05.
"I'm used to seeing that look in [Cook's] eye, just gimme the ball and I'm going to get some yards no matter what type of blocking, what type of play it is," Torrence said. "He just had that look, no matter whether it's run or pass and that's just what we need out of him and everybody else and so far, that's what we're getting."
The season has been far from perfect for Cook, 24. Veteran Latavius Murray has started over him at times and drops have been an issue in the passing game for Cook, including on a likely touchdown catch vs. the Cowboys. But with Brady taking over the playcalling, an increased emphasis on getting the ball in Cook's hands is clear and has meant good things for this team.
Cook is averaging 141 scrimmage yards in the four games since McDermott fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. His touches have increased from 14.4 per game to 21, with his rushing yards per game up to 88.3 from 61.5 with Dorsey calling plays. Cook's touchdowns have doubled from two in the first 10 games to four in the last four.
"Give Joe credit there, too," McDermott said. "Stick with it and when it's working -- why get away from it, right? Whether it's the pass or the run. The run was working for us."
Cook is the first Bills running back with receiving touchdowns in back-to-back games since Thurman Thomas in 1995, and is now third in the NFL in scrimmage yards per game (100.1).
Per Next Gen Stats, the Bills have the 11th-highest run rate over expected (+5.7%) since Week 11 (Weeks 1-10, -2.7%, 28th).
The Bills ran by design Sunday on 71% of their plays (excluding kneel downs), the highest rate in the NFL this season and the team's highest rate since 2017. Relying on Allen's arm wasn't needed, with just 15 passing attempts tied for his second-fewest in a game.
Not needing to run the football in turn helped the Bills defense, which was without safety Micah Hyde and defensive end AJ Epenesa. Playing from behind, the Cowboys were forced to throw the ball more to stay in the game.
Will the Bills be able to use this as a formula going forward? Perhaps not to this extent, with Allen expected to remain at the center of the offense, but the establishment of the running game is an encouraging sign.
With this team following a discouraging 3-5 stretch of football with wins over the Chiefs and Cowboys, the emphasis on the running game figures to be important going forward.
"The great thing is that we understand this was a great victory, we're going to enjoy this against a good team," center Mitch Morse said. "But winning this game is just kind of the next step [toward] what our ultimate goal is, which is to make the playoffs first and then go from there. We still have an uphill battle, but this is a great first step."