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Anyone watching the Bills’ matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers likely realized how little Buffalo rushed the ball. One might not have realized it was actually a bit historic.
In the first half of their eventual 33-27 overtime loss to the Bucs (10-3), the Bills (7-6) handed the ball to their running backs a grand total of zero times. Not once.
In terms of NFL history, despite the league going toward a passing attack in the modern game… that was essentially a first ever in the current NFL that we know.
The last time a team simply did not hand the ball off to a running back in a half? That came all the way back in 1991:
The #Bills did not have one handoff to a running back in the first half against the #Buccaneers . It's the first time since 1991 that a #NFL team has played the entire 1st half and had NO rushes by a running back.
— Scott Pioli (@scottpioli51) December 12, 2021
Perhaps the Bills will look to start handing it off a bit earlier in games moving forward. While there was a big comeback by Buffalo, they did go into halftime down 24-3 to Tampa.
Then again, they probably have to get better at doing it beforehand.
Now for the ironic part.
When things were all said and done, quarterback Josh Allen was by far Buffalo’s leading rusher.
The Bills QB had 109 yards on the ground via 12 carries. Running back Devin Singletary eventually ripped off 52 yards on four carries and Matt Breida had 12 on three carries.
Combined? That’s 173 yards. Of that total, 130 of them came after the half.
That second half and overtime total, by itself, was still more rushing yards than the Bills have had in nine game so far this season… even though a running back did not have a carry in the first half.
That’s some oddity.
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