"Trippin'."
That is how Los Angeles Chargers corner Casey Hayward described the decision by Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott to start rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman on the road.
"This week? Really? Changing to a rookie quarterback for his first start? Against us?" Hayward thought before the Chargers picked off Peterman five times in the first half.
"I'm pretty sure we might've felt a little disrespected," Hayward said, via the L.A. Times. "...We've got two really good pass rushers, probably the top tandem in the NFL. We've got really good corners. ... We've got really good safeties. They do it against us?
"Trippin'."
Trippin' in deed.
The optics of the Bills' quarterback decision look disastrous in hindsight, with Peterman tossing five INTs in just 14 pass attempts. They never looked great from the moment the decision was made. Making a change is one thing, but doing it on a cross-country road trip, facing a fire-breathing pass rush in Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram was inviting trouble.
McDermott said following the game he'd wait to name a starter after Tyrod Taylor was his normal solid self in second half relief in the blowout. But how can he justify going back to Peterman after one of the most disastrous first halves of football since the invention of the forward pass? The rookie could be scarred for the rest of his career.
"Me and Mel knew that if we were able to get pressure and get in his face, he was going to make some bad decisions with the football," Bosa said, per the O.C. Register. "We didn't expect five."
You know it's a bad situation when a defensive player sounds sorry for the beating he put on his opponent.
"You have to cut him a break," Bosa added. "He's a rookie, and he was thrown in there out of the blue. And it's not like we were taking it easy on him."