Bills Will Start Derek Anderson At Quarterback Vs. Patriots On Monday Night Football
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- This is not what ESPN executives had in mind when they scheduled the Patriots and Bills for a midseason meeting on Monday Night Football.
Actually, it's not exactly clear what those executives had in mind when they booked the Bills for this game. Regardless, the matchup has somehow gotten even worse as it approaches, as the Bills announced Monday that Derek Anderson will start at quarterback against the Patriots.
That's the same Derek Anderson who:
--Signed with the Bills on Oct. 9 (after starting zero games in 2017 and four games over the past seven seasons)
--Started for the Bills on Oct. 21
--Threw three interceptions with no touchdowns and lost a fumble in a 37-5 loss in that start
Doesn't seem like much of a winning strategy.
But that's what the Bills get for entering the season with arguably the worst quarterback situation in the entire NFL. They traded away Tyrod Taylor after he led them to their first playoff berth since 1999, deciding to keep backup Nathan Peterman.
That's the same Nathan Peterman who:
--Turned in the elusive five-interception game in one of his two starts of 2017
--Managed to throw a pick, fumble the football and take an intentional grounding penalty in his four snaps at the end of the Bills' playoff loss
You definitely want to keep that guy around. He's rewarded the Bills' faith by completing 36.7 percent of his passes in 2018, with a stellar 1-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Kid's showing some promise.
Not enough promise, though, to prevent the Bills from drafting Josh Allen with the seventh overall pick of the 2018 NFL draft.
That's the same Josh Allen who:
--Completed just 56.2 percent of his passes in college, where he threw 44 TDs and 21 INTs for FBS Wyoming
--Completed exactly 50 percent of his passes against Big Ten and Pac-12 teams, with 1 TD and 8 INTs
--Has kept it up as a pro, completing 54 percent of his NFL passes, with 2 TDs and 5 INTs
Allen hurt his elbow against Houston in Week 6, and his status has for some reason been reported on breathlessly ever since. As if he'd make much of a difference.
In any event, whether it was Allen, or Peterman, or Anderson, the Bills were going to have a pretty bad quarterback situation heading into this week. Anderson just has to hope he can be slightly better than he was against the Colts, and he'll also have to hope that his postgame press conference goes better than it did back in 2010:
It's not funny!
(Unless you're talking about the Bills' quarterback situation. That's pretty funny.)
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.