When the Bills picked Tyrod Taylor to be their starting quarterback this summer, they were likely looking for performances just like the one he turned in on Sunday against the Colts.
Taylor made plays with his arm and his legs in a 27-14 win that put Ralph Wilson Stadium into a raucous and joyful mood. Taylor hit on 14-of-19 passes for 195 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown strike to Percy Harvin, and ran for 41 yards while escaping from trouble in the pocket to keep the team moving down the field. Coach Rex Ryan said there was “magic” in Taylor’s legs amid other praise for the man he picked to run the offense.
“He beats you with his arm,” Ryan said, via the Buffalo News. “He’s smart. You can’t trick him. I mean, it’s hard to trick him. Obviously, he has that added dimension with his legs. You know, he’s great. He’s got a great feel for it. ... The great ones, they just got that presence. He has a presence to him.”
Any serious discussions of presence or greatness will require more than one game of evidence to make them stick, but you can’t blame Buffalo for being excited about their first look at Taylor. He looked sharp all day and in all phases of the offense, something that has rarely been the case for Buffalo quarterbacks in recent years. Should next week’s outing against the Patriots unfold in similar fashion, Ryan won’t be the only person seeing magic in the air.