OAKLAND, Calif. -- Sure, with the Oakland Raiders in 11 personnel, running back Josh Jacobs taking the handoff and bursting through a hole between right tackle Trent Brown and right guard Denzelle Good with no hesitation was impressive.
So was planting his right foot and cutting back to the middle of the field amidst the crush of humanity falling around him.
Running through arm tackle attempts by Damien Wilson and Juan Thornhill was eye-opening, too, before heading to the right sideline.
But the most jaw-dropping moment of Jacobs' 51-yard run through the heart of the Kansas City Chiefs' defense on Sunday? That would be when, with the opportunity to simply run out of bounds, Jacobs lowered his left shoulder and delivered a blow to Charvarius Ward, then picked up an additional 10 yards.
"I mean, I don't want to be labeled as a soft back, I guess," Jacobs said, softly, after rumbling for 99 yards on 12 carries in the Raiders' 28-10 loss to the Chiefs.
"I'm still young so, I mean, right now my body can take it, these kinds of hits, so ..."
Jacobs' voice trailed off, not unlike the would-be tacklers he left in his wake on his run. But he need not worry about being labeled soft after the first two games of his NFL career. Not when he is averaging 5.3 yards a carry in rushing for 184 yards and two touchdowns and getting the support of a Raiders Hall of Famer on Twitter.
I said it once and I'll say it again, @iAM_JoshJacobs is destined for greatness. #JustWinBaby https://t.co/fuQvjxDySj
— Marcus Allen (@MarcusAllenHOF) September 12, 2019
And not when he has already won over his locker room.
"He is a special player, we don't have to wait anymore," Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said of Jacobs. "He just has to do it every day, consistently in practice, consistently every game. But we know he's special. If you're a little kid and you love the Raiders and you're a running back, I'd buy his jersey, because he's going to be around a long time."
Remember, we're talking about a rookie, a guy who was never a true bell cow running back in college because, well, he never carried the ball more than 20 times in any game at Alabama. For another, Jacobs carried the ball 251 times total in three years with the Crimson Tide.
Sunday's performance was even more impressive considering Jacobs entered the game with a sore groin and had to leave it for a spell to get an IV as he began cramping.
"When I got out, I kind of knew it was going to break," Jacobs said of his 51-yarder. "I could kind of feel like a couple of plays before, like one was going to bust. And it just happened to be that play. I tried to pick up my legs and just get as much as I could."
And for one last time -- unless the Raiders' move to Las Vegas next season is delayed -- Jacobs played on the baseball infield dirt of the Oakland Coliseum, the lone stadium used by both an NFL and MLB team. In 1981, the year before the Raiders left for Los Angeles, 16 of 28 NFL teams played in a stadium used for football and baseball. In 1995, the year the Raiders returned to Oakland, 10 of the league's 30 teams shared a stadium with a baseball team. Since 2012, the Raiders have been the only one.
Jacobs exhaled slowly and smiled when reminded he would not have to deal with the dirt again (the Raiders do not play in Oakland again until Nov. 3, four days after Game 7 of the World Series, should the Oakland Athletics be playing host).
"I'm happy," Jacobs laughed. "I mean, the dirt hurt more than the tackles."
Though maybe not as much as his shoulder hurt Ward.