ORCHARD PARK [url=http://www.billsjerseysproshop.com/frank-gore-jersey/]Frank Gore Jerseys 2019[/url] , N.Y. (AP) — Quarterback Nathan Peterman never lost faith in himself following the most difficult moment of his young NFL career. What’s more important, neither did Bills coach Sean McDermott.In 10 months, Peterman has gone from throwing five interceptions in the first half of his first career start, to being chosen Monday as Buffalo’s season-opening starter. Though the job is his until rookie first-round pick Josh Allen is deemed ready, Peterman’s ascension from being counted out to being counted on is a testament to the second-year player’s perseverance.“I believe he’s a resilient young man. He’s certainly come through some times of adversity throughout his career,” McDermott said shortly the Bills announced Peterman would be their starter at Baltimore on Sunday. “Usually, if you go through some adversity early in life, you’re that much more prepared for it when it comes around later.”Peterman is aware of the critics he attracted following a 54-24 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 19 in which McDermott’s decision to start him ahead of Tyrod Taylor backfired. And Peterman was grateful for the opportunity to prove himself during a three-way competition that was trimmed to two once AJ McCarron was traded to Oakland last weekend.“It means a lot. I’m thankful for the people that stood by my side through hard times,” Peterman said.“When you have obstacles, hard things in your life, that doesn’t mean you should quit,” he added. “Maybe that’s the way some people think, but that’s not the way I think. For me, it just amps me up even more and gives me a lot of desire and drive to go accomplish those goals.”McDermott based his decision on how the Peterman handled himself upon arriving at the team’s facility in April, and his steady performance in three preseason appearances.Peterman put up the best passing numbers during the preseason, 33 of 41 for 432 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.In the meantime, the start of the Allen era is on hold after the strong-armed but raw quarterback showed he requires more development.Allen went 24 of 44 for 210 yards and two touchdowns in three preseason appearances, and particularly struggled in a 26-13 loss to Cincinnati on Aug. 26 in his only preseason start. The 22-year old managed three first downs on seven-plus series while getting little protection from a patchwork offensive line and being sacked five times for 39 yards.“As a competitor, you want to play,” Allen said. “To not play, that’s going to hurt anybody’s feelings, but at the end of the day, it’s football. We’re part of the team. I can’t say anything bad about the decision. Nate played well in the preseason. Now I’m here to help him in any way possible.”The Bills traded up five spots to select the Wyoming product seventh overall — the highest draft position Buffalo has ever selected a quarterback.McDermott declined to get drawn into making comparisons between the two quarterbacks. He described Allen’s development as being on schedule and said the rookie can learn plenty from watching regular-season games from the sideline.“I expect Josh will be ready to go when his number’s called [url=http://www.billsjerseysproshop.com/john-brown-jersey/]White John Brown Jerseys[/url] , whenever it is called. And that’s his focus now,” McDermott said.The Bills are starting over at what’s been an unsettled position since Hall of Famer Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season. Peterman will become the 11th quarterback to start a season, including Matt Cassel, who took the first snap in 2015.Peterman has a track record of bouncing back from adversity.In his first college start at Tennessee, Peterman had a hand in four turnovers — two interceptions, a fumble while being sacked and a botched handoff — before being pulled during a 31-17 loss at Florida as a redshirt freshman in 2013.He then transferred to Pittsburgh following his sophomore year and excelled in his final two seasons. At Pitt, Peterman completed 378 of 619 attempts for 5,142 yards with 47 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in 26 games, which led Buffalo to select him in the fifth round of the draft.Peterman doesn’t look toward starting against Baltimore as a chance to ease the memories of what happened against Los Angeles.“Every time I’ve gotten back on the field it’s a new opportunity,” he said. “You’re not tied to your past failures.”He’s also not looking beyond this weekend, when reminded the Bills’ home-opener is against the Chargers on Sept. 16.“Yeah, that’s two weeks away. And like I say, it’s day to day,” Peterman said. “It’s about the Ravens.”NOTES: McDermott said Ryan Groy has earned the starting spot at center. … DT Kyle Williams (right knee) practiced, though he’s not sure he’ll be ready to play Sunday. … The Bills filled out their 10-player practice squad by signing offensive lineman Ruben Holcomb and defensive tackle Robert Thomas. Another season is in the books, which means we need another in-depth way to look at penalties. How did the Buffalo Bills do as a team when it comes to flags? The masses yearn for answers, and man do we have some! Before we dive in though, I’d like to thank NFLpenalties.com for their unrivaled access to the information I need for these posts. Penalty CountFor a good chunk of this recap, I thought it would be intriguing to compare the 2018 Buffalo Bills to not only the league rates, but also the 2017 Buffalo Bills. League averages for both years are included so we can see how the league shifted as well. When comparing this year’s assessed penalties for the Bills to the rest of the league, it’s not good. While the per-game rates don’t come across as terrible at 0.55 above the norm, it’s fifth-worst in the league. Arguably, the true or total flags better-represents penalty tendency. The Bills are still sixth-worst in the league with that measure. Before we compare the Bills’ two seasons [url=http://www.billsjerseysproshop.com/john-brown-jersey/]John Brown Jerseys 2019[/url] , note that the league rates went up slightly for both assessed and true counts by 0.1 flags per game. There are two important considerations for this information. First, playoffs tend to lower the rate slightly, so the gap could lessen between the two league years in the coming weeks. Second, the increase is not enough to explain the increase in the Bills’ rates. For the Bills, in both measures they increased more than a full penalty per game. Last year’s team was actually better-than-average when it comes to penalties, making the jump even more glaring. Penalty yardsYardage—the second half of traditional metrics—shows similar patterns to the count data above. The 2017 Bills performed better than league average when it came to assessed yards. They also did much better than the 2018 Bills. This year’s team remains fifth-worst in the league using this metric. For negated yards, both years for the Bills were about the same with 18.53 negated yards in 2017 and 17.75 yards per game this season. While that doesn’t change the findings from everything else, the silver lining is that they weren’t wiping out more positive gains than last year. Penalty harmI thought it’d be fun to show some of the more hidden data points that go into penalty harm. A lot of discussion focuses on yardage (assessed and negated) but there’s plenty of other talking points built into harm. Negated turnovers are quite rare, with only one per season and fortunately both on an opponent. Negated points aren’t incredibly common either but if you wanted a quick look, here you go. In both years, the Bills negated a touchdown. In 2018, Kyle Williams negated an opponent’s extra point which is assessed as negative harm or a “good” thing. In better news, opponents wiped out more points than the Bills in both years.For downs, this is the sum of how many free downs were given to an opposing offense (ex: from defensive holding), or downs negated (ex: from offensive holding). In both years, the Bills impacted more downs than their opponents. The gap was a good deal wider in 2018. Harm rating is shown two ways. The entire season is there for fun, with the per-game rate likely more relevant. As a home brew stat that’s still fairly fluid when it comes to interpretation, I’ve been indicating that 10.0 per game is the cut-off between good and bad. While that’s not a bad translation, using the two latest seasons of data and considering league data, it brings up the question of why the 2017 Bills are in the range of “bad” when they performed better than league average using standard metrics. It is possible that an above-average team in counts/yards could be worse in harm if, for example, they gave up a high rate of first downs. Without data league-wide, though [url=http://www.billsjerseysproshop.com/cole-beasley-jersey/]White Cole Beasley Jerseys[/url] , it’s very difficult to truly set a line. The idea that teams should aim for under ten is probably a great conclusion from the last few years of data, but it’s possible that 10.5 or thereabouts might be the better average score. Penalties by phaseOne of the more common musings I see is how each phase of the team is doing when it comes to penalties. From the look of the chart it would appear that the offense is really, really bad. Looking at league frequencies though, the Bills are pretty typical in counts by phase. If anything, special teams is the “problem.” The league rate for offense is 58% and 11% for special teams. For the math-minded, that means the Bills’ defense is nearly perfectly average and the offense is a little bit low. The rest of the data is there for fun, but without league-wide data it’s hard to put into context.Penalties by typeThe holiday season might be over, but I have a gift for the avid penalty followers. That’s right, a sortable chart for penalties by type (it works best in desktop). Aw yeah!Penalties by typePenaltyCountAssessed yardsYards affectedDowns -/+Points affectedSum of HarmPenaltyCountAssessed yardsYards affectedDowns -/+Points affectedSum of HarmIf you went ahead and sorted by count, offensive holding jumps right out at 31. Believe it or not, that’s only eighth-worst in the league. Still bad, but not terribly so. False start? Ninth worst. Defensive holding had the Bills tied for seventh-worst, and when it comes to defensive pass interference they’re tied for eleventh, which is middle of the pack. To compare a bit with pass interference, the league leader New Orleans Saints had 20. Unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties weren’t a significant problem. So how did the Bills end up closer to worst than first?While none of the above types were terrible, a decent amount of pretty bad measures adds up. Also, the Bills had the highest volume of assessed illegal-formation penalties in the league. Chicago had one more called than the Bills, but had two declined. Toss in a few similar ones like illegal shift and ineligible downfield flags and they add up to a pre-snap issue on offense. Put that with a higher rate on special teams and you end up near the top of the charts.SummaryLike most things in a league built on parity, there’s not a lot that separates one side of a fence from the other. The 2018 Buffalo Bills really weren’t a far cry from their 2017 counterparts. Pre-snap penalties on offense and a higher-than-normal rate of flags on special teams pulled them from a little better than average to fifth-worst. Many of the more problematic items for the Bills should be able to be cleaned up by having a more steady offseason and tinkering less with lineups. As an example, hitting the league average on illegal formation penalties would have lowered the Bills’ per-game rate to 6.93 penalties. That’s more than halfway back to being average.