twoandfourteen

I appreciate the time you took to write this, and you're probably mostly correct. But it's irrelevant. I think that you think that I'm making arguments that I'm not making. My problem lies with the media and idiots around here and their hyperbolic hysterics about Peterman having the "worst game for a QB in NFL history", and then using it to somehow prop up the Tyrod Taylor and his totally useless passing offense. It's simply not true. I couldn't really care any less about Peterman. If he turns into the next Joe Montana, sweet. If he flames out and is a total bust, oh well that sucks. It's how the narrative is being spun around him to try and make Tyrod look good and McDermott look like the village idiot. The reality is that Taylor was sinking the team with his play and McDermott was 100% justified in making the switch. It was a desperation move, and I give him credit for having the guts to do it. The fact that you don't agree with the comparison really doesn't matter... because only two QBs in the NFL this year threw 5 INTs in a game. So that's the comparison. It's the only comparison for the 2017 season, because the two events actually happened. So, for the purposes of my contention -- that the media and #teamtyrod are pushing a lazy and intellectually void narrative -- Ben vs Peterman in their 5INT Throwdown is actually the perfect example of how they are basically fabricating the whole thing. Peterman sucked against the Chargers. But it wasn't the "worst performance by a QB in NFL history", considering a Hall of Fame guy did the exact same thing just a few weeks prior. Ben's game probably wasn't the "worst performance by a QB in NFL history", either. But it was definitely worse than what Peterman did against the Chargers. That's all I'm saying. I don't really care about what that game means for Peterman and whether or not he's a bust. Only an idiot would write the kid off after one game. Now, if he goes out and throws up on his shoes like that a few more times, then yeah -- probably time to find another line of work. But I think he'll be ok and carve out a nice career for himself as a solid #2/fringe starter.

Defenses have realized that the best way to beat Tyrod Taylor is to make him play quarterback.

Clearly. Focus less on the players and more on the "worst half for a QB ever" part. It's not fair and factually incorrect to completely write off Peterman and proclaim that he played the "worst half ever for a QB" when there was a much more accomplished player who did the exact same thing only weeks before. You need to look at this from a much broader standpoint. Player A is brand new and is expected to make rookie mistakes. It happens in all jobs across all walks of life. Still bad and unfortunate, but it happens. Player B is one of the best over to perform that job. He has a very bad performance, making similar "rookie mistakes" to Player A. The point is that Roethlisberger's 2nd half against the Jags was worse than Peterman's 1st half against the Chargers, because he (Ben) is a far more accomplished and talented player. It's worse when someone that good plays that bad, than when someone brand new with debatable skill plays poorly while learning on the job. Do you see what I'm saying here?

So to be clear here -- you are arguing that 5th round rookie QB, Nathan Peterman in his first NFL start has less of a margin of error than 14 year veteran, future HOF QB, Ben Roethlisberger does? You are making the case that people should be MORE critical of the rookie in his first start and LESS critical of the future HOFer in his 190th start. Because if Peterman's start was the "worst in NFL history", then what was Roethlisberger's? Because they both threw 5 INTs in a single game. Roethlisberger had two run back for TDs in the span of three minutes. Oh, and he was at home. I don't know. If you ask me, an all-time great should be held to a higher standard and the rookie should be given a little slack. Oh, and as for your Colts game comment -- the kid got the job done while he was in the game. That's all anyone could have wanted and expected from him. He gets bonus points for doing it under ridiculous circumstances, too. Same thing goes for Joe Webb in that one, too. Those two backups kept things together well enough and made enough plays at the position while dealing with something never-before-seen, and came out with a win. A win that, by the way, helped to put them in place to play this weekend. So get lost with the "well, it was a bad pass defense".... who cares? It was an epic blizzard! Everything went out the window that day and it came down to who was able to do their job in the conditions. Peterman and Webb get full credit for pulling that one off.

Done. Where do we sign?

Absolutely. If he's terrible, then you move on. If he's even remotely good, you can flip him down the line. He currently presents the possibility of a higher ceiling in the passing game than Tyrod Taylor. Of course, that isn't exactly a very tough standard to beat. The dumbest thing they could do is to continue to run with the QB who has consistently sat in the basement of the league in passing and was deathly allergic to scoring points this year.

Or what? He might scramble for several 6 or 8 yard gains? Great, him running is a slow and inefficient way to move the ball downfield. If I'm a DC, I welcome Tyrod to run. It's no where near as dangerous as a QB who can effectively attack through the air. Publicly of course, I'd have to say how important it is to watch out for Taylor scrambling, blah, blah, blah. But I know that him scrambling means he's given up on the pass, a much more efficient and effective way to move the ball, and that is a-ok with me. So in private, I'm like "RUN, TYROD, RUN!"

I pretty much say this. Maybe not 100% his fault, but the overwhelming majority is. His limitations as a passer affects every other aspect of the offense. OC can't use a full play book and is forced into an ultra-conservative game plan because falling behind by two scores at any point is practically an automatic loss. You just don't have the ability to score quickly enough to come back. Forget the two-minute offense. The running game suffers, defense is forced to spend more time on the field, etc, etc, etc. Literally anyone after this season is over.

100% on him. Even a rookie has to know better than this.

1. Not true. Revisionist history is a fool's game. 2. All the more reason why their opinions mean nothing, especially after the fact. On this one, I'll side with the guys who had something to lose. 3. After multiple very poor performances, Taylor set the bar so low with 56 yards against New Orleans that taking this risk was a preferable option. What else?

Was Roethlisberger ready for the Jaguars game? He threw 5 INTs too. I agree with you -- It's highly unlikely, considering his resume. Dude probably just had a really bad day at the office. Worst game of the 2017 NFL season by a QB. Was Peterman ready? Considering he demonstrated reasonable rookie proficiency and competence at the position in his limited mop-up duty, I don't see any evidence that anyone can say with absolute certainty that the kid was going to be a disaster. Had he gone into the Saints game and looked like Matt Leinart in the preseason a few years ago, then you'd definitely have a case. But he didn't. He actually looked pretty good in garbage time. Put up better numbers in 5 minutes than Taylor did over the course of the previous 55 minutes. Of course, it was against a Saints defense that had mailed it in, but at that point of the season, Taylor had put the Bills into desperation mode at the position. So it was better than nothing. Taylor literally gave them no other choice but to start someone else at QB. Your argument concerning Peterman's "readiness" is further weakened by the kid's performance against the Colts. There was a situation where a rookie QB could absolutely be expected to fall apart -- playing a game in never-before-seen, historically bad weather conditions, further compounded by his previous start against the Chargers, and he went in there and looked every bit the part of an NFL QB, especially on the TD throw to Benjamin. So to claim that McDermott is an unbelievable idiot because it was clearly obvious to everyone in the world that Peterman was going to throw 5 INTs against the Chargers is simply not true. And it's even dumber to use that as some kind of support for keeping Taylor as the starter, since he was primarily responsible for putting the team in such a dire situation on offense.

No, he was talking about Roethlisberger against JAX. At 6:44 & 4:11 in the 3rd Quarter, the Jags took back-to-back INTs in for TDs. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201710080pit.htm

I had no idea it was that bad until I saw your post -- thanks for adding that in.

Thank you to both of you, I was actually hoping for these responses. No, of course I'm not implying that Nate is the next Roethlisberger. That would be insane. Nate is most likely the next Drew Stanton, if anything. My point is that all of the scorching hottt "WORST PERFORMANCE BY A QB OF ALL-TIME, HAHAHA" or "MCDERMOTT IS SOOO STUPID!!!!! takes are ridiculous and incredibly lazy, and to use them to somehow excuse Tyrod Taylor's absolutely horrible performances this season and condemn McDermott as a coach is even more insane. Let's look at this objectively. In 2017, Nathan Peterman... Rookie QB Drafted in the 5th round 7 months into his NFL career Shouldn't have ever been put in that position, but the starter had been a tire fire in multiple games to that point. Threw 5 INTs in a half in his first ever start on the road. In 2017, Ben Roethlisberger... Future first ballot HOF'er 14 years as a starter in the NFL 2 Superbowl Rings 50,000+ passing yards/300+ passing TDs Threw 5 INTs at home in the 190th game of his career. 4 of those INTs occurred in the second half. 2 were returned for TDs in a span of 3 minutes. The Steelers were actually winning 9-7 when this all went down, and ended up losing 30-9. So what's the point? I'm glad you asked. The point is that bad games happen. If an all-time great like Ben Roethlisberger is susceptible to a total meltdown at QB, then a 5th round rookie playing in his first start is definitely capable of it. Peterman's game in LA was really unfortunate. It was an unmitigated disaster for the rookie QB and the rookie coach. But it's not as big of a deal as #teamtyrod and the empty-headed media are making it out to be. To say it's the "worst thing ever done by any QB ever" when it wasn't even the worst game by a QB in 2017 is ridiculous. Maybe I should make this it's own thread... hmmm. Those are balanced out by Super Bowl rings, 300+ and 400+ yard performances, etc, etc. Do better.

14 year starter, future HOF QB, and 2 time Super Bowl Champion Ben Roethlisberger threw 5 INTs against the Jaguars this year. 4 of them were in one half. Bad games happen. But he didn't break the hearts of the #teamtyrod fangirls.

Let's do this one more time. Pay attention. When evaluating a decision, you can only look at the information available at the time the decision was made. At the time, McD had a starting QB that was incapable of doing his job. To that point in the season, Taylor's body of work was poor and borderline terrible in multiple games. The Saints game was unacceptable by any measure and something had to be done. Period. That is where he was when Peterman got the call. The result of the decision was an unfortunate disaster. However, that doesn't mean that he was stupid or incompetent for making it. Tyrod Taylor put them in the position where they had no other choice but to make a change. Now, maybe you knew for certain that Peterman was going to throw 5 picks. If that's the case, then it's on you for not taking your crystal ball down to OBD to give McD a heads up. All I ask is that you use your powers of clairvoyance for good, not evil.

Kirk Cousins put up 4000 yards with: Jamison Crowder Terelle Pryor (for 9 games) Vernon Davis Josh Doctson Ryan Grant (who I honestly thought was the RB from Green Bay, but then realized that this is a different Ryan Grant) CJ Beathard (204.3 yds/gm) & Jimmy Garappolo (260.0 yds/gm) put up better passing numbers with: Marquise Goodwin Louis Murphy George Kittle Pierre Garcon (for 8 games) Trent Taylor Aldrick Robinson Washed up, old Eli Manning went for 231.2 yds/gm throwing to: Sterling Shepard Evan Engram Roger Lewis Tavarres King Odell Beckham (for 4 games) Now, spare us all the microscopic breakdown of Louis Murphy vs Deonte Thompson. I don't really care. The point is that there are plenty of teams working with less-than-ideal WR/TE groups and they are able to somehow manage a functional and barely competent passing game. I don't think anyone wants or expects the "greatest show on turf" from Tyrod Taylor. But it's not too much to ask to hit a receiver in stride or maybe at least present the threat of a passing attack. He's started 43 games and 23 of them are under 200 yards passing.

I don't really have any issue with anything in your post. Nicely done. I'd only add that "Based on his limitations as a passer, he's barely in the top 30". Your post is an excellent case to be made for Taylor being the one of the best backup QBs in the league. His value to a team with an elite starter, like Green Bay for example, would be the ability to steady the ship and keep things going until the starter was ready to come back. Taylor won't kill you with stupid turnovers and he will do just enough to put some points on the board to escape with 3 or 4 wins when needed. Again -- thanks for the good, informative post.

Statistically, he's not wrong and they absolutely did. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good. I can't stand Simmons, so count me in the "hate" column.

I noticed you conveniently failed to address any of the points I made regarding the actual passing production. You saying "Lets just hit some highlights" means "Ol' Uncle 2&14 has made points here that I can not refute." Anyway, let's move on and address your nonsense one line at a time. 1. Taylor is statistically one of the most inaccurate starting QBs in the NFL. He isn't exactly known for throwing pinpoint, timing-based passes. The only throw he has any particular skill for is the ol' "heave & hope" down the sideline. While it is impossible to know exactly what happened on that play, the accuracy numbers, along with Taylor's career body of work strongly point to it being on the QB. 2. Based on his above-average (for him) first half stats, he was on pace for 230 yards and 2 TDs. He ended up with 285 yards and 3 TDs -- 2 passing, 1 rushing in the final few minutes of the 4th quarter. 285 is more than 230, right? Then add in two very late TDs against a team that was up by 27. That is the literal definition of "padding the stats". 3. I would think so. Still doesn't make me wrong. 4. I'm going to make an assumption here -- so forgive me if I'm wrong -- but I'm going to assume that you really don't have much experience in a management or leadership capacity. To think that McD made a seismic decision like that without at least gauging the temperature of the team leaders is ridiculous. A decision like that does not get made without some input from key stakeholders. I would be willing to bet that there were several players (WR's and the defense, maybe?) that had reached a point of frustration with Taylor and were willing to try anything at that point. The fact that the team rebounded so quickly and easily from it says to me that many in that locker room were on board with some kind of change at QB. Had it been some kind of rogue, knee-jerk move by McD -- there would have been some sign of unrest and displeasure coming out of the locker room. This is all based on conjecture, of course. But it makes the most sense when one uses common sense and operates in reality.

Don't forget.... 74 yards passing going into the final drive at Carolina. Airmailed the game winning TD pass to Zay Jones. 65 yards passing against New England, who had the worst pass defense in football. Once he was comfortably down 34-7 against the Jets, he was able to pad the stats in "Tyrod Time". BUT HE ONLY TURNED THE BALL OVER ONCE IN THOSE 4 GAMES!!!!!U!)*Y!(*^!(&T! The national media & #teamtyrod's Peterman/McDermott take is literally the laziest & most uninformed opinion possible. And if the kid went in there and lit it up, McD would have looked like a genius and you would all be sleeping in Peterman jerseys right now. No one knew what would happen going into that game, and I would bet that there were quite a few players in the locker room who were absolutely consulted and supportive of that decision. Taylor's inability to run even a barely functional passing offense against teams other than the Dolphins put Peterman in the conversation. McDermott was 100% correct and justified pulling Tyrod Taylor.

That is certainly true... for QBs that have demonstrated the ability to run passing offenses that are not consistently ranked in the bottom 5 of the entire league. Taylor has had more sub-100 yard passing days than he has had 300+ yard passing days. But, that's fair if you think sub-100 is an outlier. How about 130 yards passing? Is 130 yards over the course of an entire football game a fair standard of production for a starting QB that has been in the league for 7 years? Because over the past 3 seasons, Tyrod Taylor has had 7 games of under 130 yards passing. Out of all the veteran starting QBs in the NFL, the closest to that? Blake Bortles & Jared Goff with 4. But Taylor doesn't throw INTs so who cares about actually moving the football down the field, right?

Because it was the thing that officially put the Bills into the playoffs. It is a critical piece of the Bills playoff story. Tyrod and the Bills did everything they needed to do to put themselves in a favorable position to benefit greatly from that clutch Andy Dalton TD pass. That's why I say it PUT them in the playoffs, but it is not the REASON they are in the playoffs.

I don't hate Tyrod. Quite the opposite, actually. I like the guy a lot, I think he's an exceptional professional athlete and seems like a great person, too. I've just had enough of people pretending he is even a good NFL quarterback. You saying the Bills have the "edge" in passing offense was beyond absurd, especially since it was solely based on turnovers. Who cares about turnovers if you can't move the ball or score points? I've never seen anything like #teamtyrod's obsession with this INT stat. The only difference between an INT and a punt is field position, which is also ridiculously overrated. When you're playing against a good or great QB, that doesn't really matter anyway since they can chew up yardage quickly and efficiently -- the very opposite of the Tyrod Taylor offense. His limitations as a passer and inability to run even a marginally functional passing offense have cost the Bills multiple wins this year.