Rusty Anderson takes Bills QB reins
Two weeks ago, Derek Anderson was chasing around his three children, ages 4, 3 and 1, and pondering the end of his football career.
Sunday afternoon, he’ll be Buffalo’s starting quarterback when the Bills head to Indianapolis to take on the Colts.
“It’s football,” he said Wednesday. “Things that happen in this game never amaze me; just gotta be ready at all times. I was fully aware of what I was getting myself into coming here. Obviously, it’s not ideal, but we’re going to do what we can.”
Anderson signed with the Bills last week to serve as a mentor for rookie Josh Allen, and he never had any illusions that he would be playing. Even if Allen were to get hurt, he assumed Nathan Peterman would step in and take over, and that’s what happened in Houston.
However, after Allen left in the third quarter with an elbow injury that will likely sideline him at least a month, perhaps more, Peterman went in and ultimately threw a pick-six with 1:23 left to play that cost the Bills the game. And head coach Sean McDermott determined, finally, that he’d seen enough of Peterman, a fifth-round pick in 2017 who has struggled mightily in every game he has played for the Bills.
“It’s the right move for our team,” McDermott said in making the announcement that Anderson would start.
Anderson had spent the previous seven years serving as Cam Newton’s backup in Carolina and has played very little during that time, throwing just 168 passes, so he has some rust to shake off during practice before he steps on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“It will take a minute to get used to it,” he said regarding the speed of the game. “But I think we’ll have a good plan and I feel good about the things that we had in today. Just going out there, football is football to me. Physically I feel good. Last week I pushed myself quite a bit just to kind of see where I was at. I knew what I was doing, but pushed myself pretty good through the week, ran pretty hard Sunday. I felt good today, legs feel good, arm feels good, mentally we’re working on it, putting a lot of hours in just trying to catch up with these guys. It’s my job to do what I can to catch up to where the guys are at.”
McDermott said one of the key factors in making the decision was that he believes Anderson has the ability to get ready on short notice. Also, he knows the player because he spent six years with him in Carolina.
“Derek’s a guy that I’ve been around in Carolina,” McDermott said, referring to the six years they spent with the Panthers before McDermott took the Bills’ head coaching job last season. “He brings experience, a leadership presence to the table and he’s worked hard the last week, week and a half here to get himself up to speed. That’s a natural part of it, and that’s part of what factored into the decision in terms of making sure he was able to get up to speed. Every situation is different, but if he was a quarterback that hadn’t been around the system, that would have been awfully hard to get up to speed in a short amount of time.”
Anderson has a tall order trying to kickstart a Buffalo offense that is the worst in the league. The Bills are averaging just 12.7 points per game, last in the NFL, and their passing game is also last at 123.0 yards.
However, the Colts have struggled to stop the pass as they rank 26th against the pass and are 30th in points allowed. If ever there is a week for Buffalo to snap out of a season-long funk, this could be it, and with the defense playing as well it has, the Bills should have an opportunity to stay in the game, and perhaps win.
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck leads the NFL in pass completions and he’s second with 16 TDs, but the Bills have been outstanding on defense and have risen to No. 3 in the league in yards allowed thanks in part to a suddenly resurgent pass rush that could create problems for Luck.
“They’re getting a lot of pressure and of course that will be a factor on Andrew this this week,” said Colts head coach Frank Reich. “No doubt they’re getting a lot of pressure on the defense. This is probably the best defense we’ve played so far this season and I think it’s because of their pass rush as they do get pressure. They find ways to pressure with four rushers and still play zone coverage behind it and when you can do that, that’s a winning formula.”
SERIES HISTORY: 70th regular-season meeting. Bills lead series 37-31-1. These two teams played in one of the most memorable games of the 2017 season, the blizzard game at New Era Field that was won by the Bills in overtime. Buffalo last played in Indianapolis in 2012, and it lost 20-13 to rookie Colts QB Andrew Luck.
