He was thrust into the starting lineup against the Colts because an injury to Josh Allen and veteran Derek Anderson will get the nod again on Monday night against the Patriots as the Bills starting quarterback.
Head coach Sean McDermott confirmed that Anderson, who went 20-31 passing for 175 yards with three interceptions, would start again due primarily to the fact that Josh Allen still isn't healthy.
"Josh Allen remains week to week," said McDermott. "He'll be out this week."
Anderson did bring a rhythm to Buffalo's passing game on Sunday as the ball came out on time. The veteran shouldered the blame on Sunday knowing he was directly responsible for four of the team's five giveaways in the game.
Anderson has one career appearance against the Patriots as a starting quarterback back in 2007 for Cleveland. He went 22-43 passing for 287 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in a 34-17 loss at New England.
2 – Allen week to week, McCoy in concussion protocol
A veteran defensive end was the latest player to be added to Buffalo's injury list.
"Trent Murphy will be week to week with a knee injury," said McDermott on Monday. "I think you saw Trent go down late in the game there."
Murphy was injured in the second half on the tail end of a play. He was tended to by athletic trainers on the field and limped off under his own power.
Coach McDermott would not yet rule Murphy out for the Monday night game, but a week to week designation does not make for an encouraging prognosis. More will be known when the team practices on Thursday.
Meanwhile LeSean McCoy remains in the concussion protocol. The Bills running back left the game on the second offensive play from scrimmage after hitting his head on the turf when he was tackled out of bounds.
He did travel back from Indianapolis with the team.
McCoy will need to be put through a series of test after he returns to baseline status before he can even do football specific activities this week.
Taiwan Jones is also week to week with the neck injury he sustained coming out of the Houston game.
3 – Line of scrimmage battle lost
In some of Buffalo's bigger losses this season, coach McDermott has pointed to the battle at the line of scrimmage as a trouble spot. That was again the case after he reviewed the film from the game against the Colts.
"It wasn't the step we wanted to take," McDermott said of the game. "I didn't think we won the line of scrimmage, which is key to winning football games, both offensively and defensively. From there things didn't go our way."
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the Bills defense uncharacteristically lost that battle. More often than not it has been Buffalo's offensive line that has struggled to consistently win the line of scrimmage.
Indianapolis rushed for 220 yards on the Bills averaging almost six yards per carry.
"We were just trying to do too much overall," McDermott said. "We've played some pretty solid defense, I just thought overall we were trying to do too much instead of just being in our gap and doing things the right way. Sometimes that happens, but we've got to get it corrected."
Buffalo's offense did average 6.1 yards per carry on the ground Sunday.
"We have to make sure we establish the line of scrimmage going forward, both in the run and the pass game," said McDermott. "Things really fall into place after that. Whether it's stopping the run, being able to run the football, affecting their quarterback and giving our quarterback a clean pocket."
