Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs is the third Alabama alumnus to win the NFL rushing title. Jacobs’ status became official on Sunday, one day after Jacobs played in what he called his “hardest game.”

Jacobs ran for 45 yards on 17 carries in the Raiders’ 31-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.

With a season total of 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns on 340 rushing attempts, Jacobs ended the 2022 campaign with a 205-yard lead on Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb, who was second entering Week 18.

On Sunday in the Browns’ 28-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chubb ran for 77 yards on 12 carries.

Jacobs didn’t practice with the Raiders on Wednesday and Thursday. He left for his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Tuesday and did not return to Las Vegas until Friday night.

His father had undergone emergency heart surgery after Jacobs’ 6-year-old son called 911 to report his grandfather’s condition.

Jacobs played with “Pops” written on his eye-black on Saturday.

“This is probably the hardest game I’ve ever played, not in the sense of physical or anything like that – just mentally, like trying to stay in it,” Jacobs said. “Being on the sideline and having too much time to think, think about what’s going on and think about being the rock of your family. It’s never easy when your rock is going through it, so it’s been an interesting time for me.”

Chubb did not wind up as the runner-up to Jacobs for the rushing title. Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry ran for 109 yards on 30 carries in a 20-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday to overtake Chubb.

Jacobs and Henry became the first players from the same college program to finish first and second in rushing in the same NFL season since 1990, when the Detroit Lions’ Barry Sanders led the league and the Buffalo Bills’ Thurman Thomas finished second. Sanders and Thomas played at Oklahoma State.

Henry completed the 2022 campaign with 1,538 yards and 13 touchdowns on 340 rushing attempts. Chubb ran for 1,525 yards and 12 touchdowns on 302 carries.

Shaun Alexander became the first former Alabama player to lead the league in rushing with 1,880 yards and 27 touchdowns on 370 carries for the Seattle Seahawks in 2005.

Henry earned rushing crowns with 1,540 yards and 16 touchdowns on 303 carries in 2019 and 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns on 378 carries in 2020.

Jacobs’ 2022 total ranks as the fourth-most rushing yards in one NFL season by a former Alabama player. In 2004, Alexander ran for 1,696 yards and 16 touchdowns on 353 carries, but he came up 1 yard short of the rushing total of league-leader Curtis Martin of the New York Jets that season.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.