Former Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor made his regular season debut with the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. He quarterbacked the team for most of the game, but won't officially go down in the record book as the team's starter.
Tyrod Taylor with the great throw.. but amazingly because of where he lined up to start game.. won't get credit as being the starting QB— trey wingo (@wingoz) September 13, 2015
So Tyrod Taylor was lined up as a receiver on the first play of his first NFL start. #blest— Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) September 13, 2015
Either way, Taylor lit it up and dazzled the home crowd with his arm and legs en route to a 27-14 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Tyrod completed 14 of 19 passes for 195 yards (10.3 yards per completion), no interceptions and he threw a touchdown.
For his first NFL touchdown pass, Tyrod dropped a 51-yard dime into the outstretched arms of fellow 757 native Percy Harvin. It was described by the announcer as a "coverage beater", and it should put to bed any notion that Taylor is an "option" or "running" quarterback.
He also added 41 yards on the ground on 9 carries (4.55 yards per rush), and eluded defenders to avoid any sacks on the afternoon. Vintage Tyrod; he felt the pressure, evaded a sack and converted a third down near the end of the first half to move the chains.
Buffalo would finish the drive with a touchdown to go up 17-0 at the half.
David Teel wrote a banger of a feature on Tyrod that chronicles and recaps his path from Hampton High to the Bills. Read the entire piece, but this anecdote in particular is priceless.
Preparing for a 2007 road game at LSU, Virginia Tech's football coaches blared crowd noise and music inside Rector Field House, the better to simulate Death Valley's notoriously ravenous fans. To underscore the point, then-offensive line coach Curt Newsome pulled freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor aside.
Newsome: "Tyrod, it's going to be really, really loud down there."
Taylor: "Coach, I've played in the Hampton-Phoebus game."
"I still laugh about that," said Newsome, now Emory & Henry's head coach. "That's how unassuming he was."
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