Nathan Peterman’s NFL debut certainly was memorable, but not for a reason that he or his team would have hoped.
The Buffalo Bills rookie quarterback was abysmal in his first career start, completing six of 14 pass attempts for only 66 yards with no touchdowns and five (!) interceptions. Peterman was benched at halftime, but the damage had been done as the Bills suffered a brutal 54-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
During Monday’s media availability, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott stood by his decision to start Peterman over Tyrod Taylor for the Week 11 matchup and even found some good things to say about the rookie’s ugly debut.
“There were some plays yesterday that I know (Peterman) wants back,” McDermott said. “There were also some plays where you look back and say, ‘That was pretty darn good.’ Hard to see that with the result being what it was, but you take it one play at a time and really look at it and say, ‘Hey, we were moving the ball.’ Sometimes you got to throw and you got to catch. Again, I own the decision and that’s on me.”
McDermott obviously is just standing up for his guy here, but it’s hard to honestly label anything Peterman did yesterday as “darn good.”
The decision to start Peterman was a head-scratcher in the first place. The Bills are in the thick of a playoff race, and deciding to go with a rookie under center instead of a veteran QB who knows the system didn’t make much sense at this stage in the season.
The Bills have yet to announce a starting quarterback for their Week 12 matchup with the Chiefs in Kansas City.
