After Sunday's terrible loss against the New Orleans Saints, head coach Sean McDermott stuck by Tyrod Taylor and said that he would remain the starter. On Wednesday, McDermott reversed his decision, and named Nathan Peterman his starter for Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Bills enter Sunday's game as 5.5 point underdogs and will have an uphill climb with a rookie making his first start.
Why Tyrod Taylor was benched
Any Buffalo Bills fan can understand why Tyrod was benched. Against the Saints, he passed for just 56 yards and didn't even seem to bother looking downfield on 3rd downs.
Instead, he went with very safe check downs to running backs, who almost never picked up first downs.
In past games, Tyrod Taylor has also held the ball for far too long and takes too many sacks instead of throwing the ball away. That inflates his completion percentage significantly, which makes his statistics look better on paper than they really are.
That's why some media pundits have claimed that Taylor's benching is purely a racial issue, as they reference statistics for Tyrod this season.
It's not that Taylor has a "smaller window," it's that he just hasn't been very good this year. Bills wins this year haven't been directly linked to Taylor, they have been in spite of him. And his statistics?
They don't tell the full story that you could get from watching any Buffalo game.
Real reason Peterman gets the start
According to an Instagram post from Buffalo Bills Fanatics, the true reason that Taylor was benched is a feud between offensive coordinator Rick Dennison and the quarterback.
And if the offensive coordinator and the quarterback aren't on the same page, how can you possible expect to succeed?
There seems to be a divide here, and it's understandable given how much Tyrod Taylor refuses to push the ball downfield or even throw it past the marker on 3rd and 12.
With Peterman, perhaps Dennison will be able to run the offense that he thinks will be successful against the Chargers. It won't matter if the Bills defense plays as poorly as it did last week.
Not all Tyrod's fault
The Buffalo Bills allowed a whopping six rushing touchdowns last week to the Saints, and they weren't much better against the Jets. If Nathan Peterman is going to lead Buffalo to a win against Philip Rivers and the Chargers, the defense will absolutely need to stop the run. At 5-4, the Bills still have a shot at the playoffs, and an AFC win on the road in LA would be a big step toward ending a 17 year playoff drought.