Nathan Peterman's first start was one of the all-time great terrible NFL debuts

The Bills quarterback started his first game after a solid appearance in relief ... and threw five picks. But some of the best struggled when they first stepped up

Terry Bradshaw won four Super Bowls as Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and it helped get him to the Hall of Fame. But no one would have guessed at his greatness after his first start, in which he completed just four passes.

Troy Aikman, another Hall of Famer with multiple Super Bowl wins, completed only seven passes in the first game of a first season in which he lost all 11 of his starts.

And please don’t forget Peyton Manning, who led the NFL with 28 interceptions in the first year of what will undoubtedly become a Hall of Fame career as well.

“Peyton had some difficulties,” Bill Polian, the Colts general manager who drafted Manning once told me. “Every rookie quarterback does in terms of getting used to the speed of the game and sophistication of the defenses and chemistry of working with the receivers. That was to be expected.”

Perhaps someday history will look at Buffalo Bills rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman’s first NFL start with the same sense. Because never in the league’s modern history, which is almost 50 years old, has a quarterback been as bad as Peterman was on Sunday. Playing against the Los Angeles Chargers, he attempted 14 passes in the first half, completing six of them to team-mates with five others ending up in the hands of his opponents.

Not surprisingly, Peterman didn’t have a second half, replaced by the man he was supposed to have made irrelevant, Tyrod Taylor.

Peterman’s start was perplexing to many around football, who noted that Buffalo actually came into the game with a 5-4 record and legitimate playoff hopes. It seemed an odd time to suddenly start a first-year quarterback who wasn’t even chosen until the fifth round of last spring’s draft. But Peterman had played well in replacing Taylor during a blowout loss to New Orleans last week and Buffalo’s rookie head coach, Sean McDermott, believed it was Peterman’s time to step up.

“He looks sharp and crisp,” McDermott told reporters late last week before the team left for California.

Then came Sunday’s game and Peterman looked anything but sharp and crisp. His five interceptions led to 24 Chargers points. At halftime, when he was pulled, Los Angeles led 37-7. Until Sunday, nobody since the NFL and AFL merged in 1970 has been intercepted five times in a half. Usually because their coaches had long benched them before they could get to that total.

McDermott showed remarkable restraint in leaving Peterman in as long as he did. Most coaches would have throw away their headsets and padlocked their quarterback to the bench after the second or the third interceptions – let alone the fifth. But McDermott appears especially attached to Peterman. Like many coaches new to a team (he had been the defensive coordinator in Philadelphia and Carolina) he wants his own quarterback, not someone he has inherited. Taylor is a player he was stuck with. Peterman is one he helped choose.

Which is why McDermott didn’t blast his quarterback after the game nor announce Peterman will go back to the bench. In fact, he sounded like he might actually be thinking of starting the hapless Peterman again next week.

“The decision was not about winning now but about the future,” McDermott said in his postgame press conference about the choice to start Peterman.

It seems a clear indication he isn’t looking to go back to Taylor – who threw for one touchdown and ran for another in the second-half – rather hoping that Peterman is the quarterback to whom he can attach himself for many seasons to come. If so, it might be a bold move. There’s really no good way to spin five interceptions and try as McDermott might, he can’t make them sound good.

Maybe, though, he will be fortunate. Maybe like Bradshaw, Aikman and Manning, a superstar looms below the Bills jersey. Maybe, Nathan Peterman will win Super Bowls.

“I’m going to learn a lot from this and make sure it never happens again,” Peterson told reporters after the game.

At least it can’t get any worse. Probably.

Fantasy player of the week

Ryan Fitzpatrick. A bit of hope for Peterman: Fitzpatrick threw six interceptions in a game last season, and still has a job in the league. On Sunday, there were better offensive performances than that of Fitzpatrick, filling in for injured Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston. New Orleans’ Drew Brees and Washington’s Kirk Cousins both had more than 300 yards passing in their game. Detroit’s Matt Stafford fell one yard short of 300 and Minnesota running back Latavius Murray ran for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

But how often does Fitzpatrick get to be anybody’s player of the week? And quite frankly, he is as almost as deserving as the others. He completed 22 of 37 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Fine numbers indeed. He also led the Buccaneers to a 30-20 victory at Miami. Given Fitzpatrick is on his seventh team and hadn’t been this precise in some time (he had 290 yards but with two interceptions in October) he seems a fine choice.

Stat of the week

55. The number of years since the Cleveland Browns last went a whole game without a penalty – until Sunday. Amazingly, the winless Browns, the dreadful Browns, were perfect. At least in the eyes of the officials. It’s a mind-boggling statistic. Rare is the team who doesn’t have a hold or a pass interference or a late-hit. Penalties are all but impossible to avoid. And you would think a team as inexperienced as Cleveland’s would make plenty.

Maybe they should have committed a few. In addition to playing penalty-free they had a warm weather team, Jacksonville, in their frosty stadium by the lake with snowflakes swirling. None of this helped them. They lost a game they should have won, 19-7, when quarterback DeShone Kizer was sacked and stripped of the ball twice in the last 1:48.

For the Browns, even perfection isn’t perfect.

Video of the week

This was horrible to watch and not just because a player had his leg crushed, but because Washington running back Chris Thompson is a fun guy to watch and was turning into a versatile offensive threat. He came into Sunday averaging 4.6 yards a rush and had 38 receptions and was a reason Washington believed they could still make the playoffs.

For a while on Sunday, Washington rallied behind their fallen player, converting a gutsy fake punt deep in their own territory right after he went down. But they were unable to hold a two-touchdown lead late in the game and were destroyed by the Saints’ Brees who completed 11 straight passes in two touchdown drives to tie the game just before the end of regulation. Brees led one last scoring drive early in overtime, leading to the field goal that beat Washington 34-31.

The Saints continue to look like a Super Bowl team with an 8-2 record while Washington fell to 4-6 and are tumbling from playoff contention.

Quote of the week

“Hola, me llamo Roberto!”– Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski’s first line in the press conference after New England’s 33-8 trampling of Oakland in Mexico City.

As if you’d expect the Patriots top goofball to approach an international press conference with the solemnity of Bill Belichick or Tom Brady. Gronkowski went on to praise the fans at Azteca Stadium who were louder than those you hear at most NFL games. Of course it’s easy to enjoy a crowd when you are up 33-0 in the third quarter. It was another impressive win for the Pats who are 8-2 after their sluggish start.

The game might actually have been won last week. Rather than fly to Mexico a day or two before the game as teams traditionally do on road trips, Belichick had the team practice at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is 6,000 feet above sea level to prepare for Mexico City which is over 7,000 feet up. Belichick even wore an Air Force hoodie to his post-game press conference, a startling move given he was practically raised in the shadow of the Navy academy, where his father was a scout.

Elsewhere around the league

--We can safely say the Eagles are the best team in the NFC East, if not the entire league. They beat division rivals Dallas Cowboys 37-9 on Sunday Night Football. Carson Wentz struggled to complete passes early on but eventually found his rhythm, throwing for two touchdowns. His opposite number, Dak Prescott, was out of sorts and is struggling without the suspended Ezekiel Elliott to help him on offense. Prescott threw three picks and no touchdowns. The Eagles lost their kicker Jake Elliott to concussion and linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, a high school soccer player, stepped in to handle kick-off duties.

--Houston’s Tom Savage threw for 235 yards and running back D’Onta Foreman ran for two scores as the Titans beat Arizona 31-21, crippling any hopes the Cardinals had of remaining in the playoff picture.

--The Giants, who have looked miserable this season, managed to make Kansas City look woeful with three interceptions in a 12-9 overtime victory at home. The Chiefs, who looked like Super Bowl contenders early in the season, have now lost four of their last five games.

--One team who have managed to maintain the pace are Minnesota. They stifled the Rams’ surge, holding Los Angeles’s powerful offense to just 254 yards in a 24-7 victory that pushed the Vikings to 8-2.