Josh Jacobs had never had an NFL game like he had on Sunday. Not many running backs have.

In the Las Vegas Raiders’ 38-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Jacobs netted minus-2 yards on nine rushing attempts and had 51 yards on five receptions.

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The former Alabama standout became the first player with at least nine rushing attempts and no more than minus-2 yards since DeShaun Foster had minus-5 yards on nine carries in the Carolina Panthers’ 31-6 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Nov. 25, 2007. That was one of three such games from the 1989 through the 2022 seasons.

Last season, Jacobs led the NFL in rushing with 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns on 340 carries.

The previous game in which a reigning NFL rushing champion had at least nine carries and no more than minus-2 yards came on Dec. 3, 1950, when the Cleveland Browns limited Steve Van Buren to minus-2 yards on 10 carries in a 13-7 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

“We’re going to have to do a better job, obviously,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said after the game. “There’s some where maybe they end up putting another man down there, but we faced that all last year, too. They put another guy down in the box many times against us last year as well, so we’re going to need to take a look at what we’re doing, we’re going to need to take a look at how we’re doing it, and no matter what we do, we’re going to have to be more productive than what we’ve done. We can’t really get ourselves started in the running game, and once you lose control of the line of scrimmage, it’s difficult to have control of the game. …

“When you don’t have control of the line of scrimmage, it becomes a very one-dimensional type of game. I don’t know how many carries J.J. ended up with, but it couldn’t have been many because we’re always in second-and-long and feeling like you have to throw the ball a little bit too much. Getting control against this team is probably one of the most important elements of playing them, and after the first drive, we never really had control of the line of scrimmage. It became too much of a pass, pass game to try to move it, and we’re trying not to be that kind of team. We want to be more multidimensional, and, obviously, we have a great back. We just didn’t get him going.”

Jacobs’ longest run on Sunday gained 3 yards. He also had gains of 1 yard and 2 yards, three carries for no gain and losses of 1 yard and 3 and 4 yards.

Until Sunday, Jacobs had never played in an NFL game without rushing for at least 16 yards. In his least productive ground game last season, he had 43 yards on 10 carries in a 24-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 30.

“I feel like I just got to do more, honestly,” Jacobs said. “Got to do more. Create plays when it’s there, and make the guys right even if they mess up on the play.”

Although Buffalo defensive tackle Ed Oliver tackled Jacobs for a 4-yard loss on the game’s first snap, Las Vegas scored on its opening drive on Sunday. On the second play, Jacobs gained 12 yards on a reception, and the next three plays gained 67 yards to put the Raiders in the end zone.

“I think that’s the thing that makes it so frustrating for me is just the potential,” Jacobs said. “You see flashes of how good we could really be, and just putting it all together on a consistent basis is the thing that we need to figure out how to do.”

Jacobs ran for 48 yards on 19 carries and caught two passes for 23 yards in the Raiders’ 17-16 season-opening victory over the Denver Broncos on Sept. 10.

Jacobs and Las Vegas spent the entire offseason at odds over his contract for the 2023 season. He didn’t join the team for practice until Aug. 30, and after the game against the Broncos, Jacobs said he had “to knock the rust off.”

Jacobs averaged 4.41 yards per carry for the first four seasons of his NFL career, but he’s at 1.64 in 2023 with 46 yards to show for 28 rushing attempts after two games.

“I’m going to have to do a better job of figuring out what we need to do to get J.J. going,” McDaniels said.

The Raiders return to the field in the Week 3 Sunday night game. They’ll square off against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 7:20 p.m. at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. NBC will televise the game.

“I think we have to identify what we didn’t do right,” Jacobs said, “address those issues and then next week focus on that and then come out and be ready for Sunday against the Steelers.”

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