The Bills Bone Headed Move

ESPN recently profiled NFL quarterback Tyrod Taylor. The article described his complex place in the NFL. Although not a star he is a clearly competent player. Coming into week 11 Taylor hadn't played stellar this year, but was still not hurting his team. He had 10 TD to only 3 INT. The Bills were 5-4 and coming off two consecutive losses. In the first loss the Bills fell to the Jets 34-21. Taylor went 29/40 for 285 yards and 2 TD. During the second loss, against the Saints, Taylor struggled going only 9/18 for 56 yards and an INT.  In the teams two most recent losses prior to week 11 Taylor had one good game and one bad game. However, both losses clearly had more to do with the Bills defense's inability to stop the opposing run. In those two games they gave up 194 and 298 yards rushing respectively.

Leading up to the Bills week 11 matchup against the Chargers, Bills head coach Sean McDermott analyzed his teams recent struggles and decided to make a change at QB and let rookie Quarterback Nathan Peterman start. The outcome of the decision was terrible. Peterman managed to throw 5 interceptions in just one half, letting the Chargers get ahead 37-7. He did so poorly that McDermott was forced to make a change and put Taylor back in at quarterback for the second half. To put this all in comparison, Peterman threw more interceptions in a half then Taylor has thrown all year. He threw the same number of interceptions as Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins, Drew Brees, and Carson Wentz have all year. Those guys have started all ten games their teams have played. Peterson has an interception rate of 20.8%. Throwing five INT in a half is really bad.

I am not normally one to call for the firing of coaches after a small sample size, but I think McDermott is a special kind of dumb. The Bills head coach decided that this above average ball security quarterback on a team that was 5-4 needed to be benched. His backup plan was starting a rookie QB with 10 career attempts. This is not a strategy for success. Teams with playoff hopes don't switch out their quarterbacks willy-nilly, especially for unproven rookies. They stick with guys way worse than Taylor. The decision to bench Taylor in favor of Peterman was a bad one and it blew up in extraordinary fashion. McDermott needs to be on the hot seat. The Bills ownership needs to let him know that he made a stupid decision and if he wants to stay their head coach he needs to stop making stupid decisions. Finally Tyrod Taylor needs to start the remainder of the games for the Bills.

Sources: Pro Football Reference

Seahawks Shoots Themselves in the Both Feet, Then Face for Good Measure

The Seahawks lost to Washington 17-14 today in what can only be described by a terrible performance by most of the team. The Seahawks had no business winning the game. The played poorly in almost all phases.

The worst and most egregious performance was kicker Blair Walsh who missed three straight field goals. All of them were wide left. If he had made any of them the team would have at least tied the game. Up until this point Walsh had been having a good season. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and he recovers.

Quarterback Russell Wilson also struggled. He threw 2 interceptions (and another on a 2 point conversion attempt). He frequently under-threw open receivers, resulting in missed big gains. Not all was bad for Danger Russ. He did lead the team on a fourth quarter touchdown drive inside the two minute warning. Unfortunately Wilson's play kept the team from scoring as many points as possible and let Washington stay in the game.

The Seahawks also put themselves into a tough situation by committing 16 penalties. Even for a Pete Carroll team this is a huge number. Many of these were drive killing for Seattle's offense or drive extending for Washington's. It is really hard for any team to win when they commit 16 penalties, but it is especially hard when the kicker gives away 9 points wide left.

Finally the defense was bit by their recurring inability to stop big plays in crucial situations. Down 4 points with 1:34 to go Washington drove 70 yards on 4 plays in 35 seconds and scored a game winning touchdown. On the drive the Seahawks defense gave up two 30+ yard passes.