Jackson in action for career-best day
Gains 83 yards on seven catches
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Fred Jackson was the least hyped of the running backs on the field during Sunday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars.
But when it was over, Jackson had upstaged teammate Marshawn Lynch and Jacksonville’s highly touted Fred Taylor and Maurice JonesDrew with a stellar effort to help lead the Bills to a 20-16 victory.
Jackson rushed for only 17 yards on six carries, but it was as a receiver that he made his greatest impact. He finished with seven catches for 83 yards. Both figures were career highs and tops among the Bills’ receivers.
“We look at Fred as just a very valuable 1-2 punch, he and Marshawn,” Bills coach Dick Jauron said. “We think the world of him. We know he’s got talents in a lot of different areas and you saw them today. He makes plays. He’s got a great feel for the game, a tough guy. He’s just a really good football player.”
After a year on the practice squad, Jackson emerged as a solid complement to Lynch, showing the skills of a feature back in one start last year.
The Bills are comfortable using Jackson in any situation, and they were not shy about getting him involved Sunday. He touched the ball on the Bills’ second play from scrimmage.
Jackson lined up as a tailback, fullback and split out wide as well. There were times that he and Lynch were in the same backfield.
Wherever Jackson was, quarterback Trent Edwards made it a priority to locate the second-year running back.
“[Edwards] told me on some of the plays, ‘I need you to get out for me right here because I may be coming to you,’ ” Jackson said.
Edwards came to him a lot because the Jaguars’ defense brought a lot of pressure and Edwards had to get rid of the ball quickly.
“We heard that they play a lot of man coverage, so we knew it was a definite possibility,” Jackson said. “Coming in, we wanted to take advantage of it and see if we could get some balls in space.”
The Jaguars have a physical defense and their players are known for being solid tacklers. But they were no match for Jackson, who broke and eluded defenders to turn short catches into bigger gains.
“[Yards after contact] is something we pride ourselves on as running backs,” Jackson said. “We definitely don’t want to be taken down by the first guy. Marshawn is a great guy at that, so I’m feeding off of him and he tries to feed off me.”
Two of the most impressive plays of the game were receptions by Jackson. One was for 33 yards and the other covered 26. In both cases, Edwards threw Jackson the ball and then watched him go to work.
“Fred Jackson, he’s a play-maker and you just have to get the ball to him and allow him to make guys miss,” Edwards said. “He did a great job for me. I threw the ball maybe 5 yards past the line of scrimmage and he puts another 30 yards on the play.
“That’s a quarterback’s dream right there. We’re going to need to have somebody like that to step up each week for us.”
