ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — We thought the stunner was that Sean McDermott, after three straight blowout losses and locker room unrest over his bizarre quarterback change, took his Bills into Kansas City and shocked the Chiefs, 16-10, on Sunday afternoon.

But, as it turns out, beating a division-leading opponent in one of the NFL’s toughest road venues was merely as stunning as his post-game refusal to endorse Tyrod Taylor, architect of the win, as the starting quarterback, as least until Buffalo is eliminated from the playoff race.

McDermott was blasted from all corners when he benched Taylor before the Chargers game in Los Angeles and replaced him with rookie fifth-round draft choice Nathan Peterman.

We all know the result.

Peterman threw five first-half interceptions, three in the opening quarter, one a “pick six,” igniting a 54-24 Chargers victory.

In desperation, McDermott pulled Peterman at intermission and put Taylor back in.

It was a tremendous loss of face for the first-year head coach, especially in a locker room where seemingly a majority of the players strongly disagreed with the decision.

But McDermott subtly pushed back early last week, saying he wasn’t sure who would start Sunday’s game at Arrowhead Stadium though, by Wednesday, he indicated Taylor would get the call.

Sure enough, the Bills rallied behind McDermott and Taylor, especially the defense.

After surrendering an average of 45 points and 414 yards in consecutive one-sided defeats by the Jets, Saints and Chargers, Buffalo’s ‘D’ gave up only 236 yards and 10 points, the second low since the opener against the Jets and the next week at Carolina, respectively.

The victory over Kansas City improved the Bills to 6-5 and pushed them back into the thick of the AFC playoff race.

But in his postgame press conference, McDermott didn’t exactly shower Taylor with praise.

He certainly didn’t second-guess his ill-considered QB switch and when asked about the future, the former Panthers defensive coordinator allowed, “Tyrod’s our quarterback for next week…”

Talk about damning with faint praise.

He maintains that’s as far ahead as he looks and isn’t sure who his team plays after Sunday’s game against the Patriots at New Era Field.

Clearly, McDermott has moved past Taylor, considers him gone at season’s end, and can’t wait to reinsert Peterman into the starting lineup. And it’s hard to disagree with his contention that “one (bad) game doesn’t define” the former Pitt star.

But, for the sake of the psyche of the locker room, to say nothing of Peterman’s mental state likely still trying to wrap his head around what happened in Los Angeles, the midst of the battle for a postseason berth is not the right time to shove a first-year player back on the field.

It’s obvious that Taylor isn’t the “franchise” quarterback the Bills are yearning for, but right now he’s their best option unquestioned.

The minute Buffalo is out of the playoff race, put Peterman in, but until then it has to be Taylor, or McDermott will be risking losing the locker room again by saying, in effect, this season is all about the future.

That’s not what veterans, and most Bills fans want to hear.

At his Monday press conference, McDermott didn’t address the Taylor-McDermott situation because he wasn’t asked about it and had already announced Tyrod would start.

But he was questioned whether, after their 5-2 start, in which Taylor performed well, there was a sense of complacency.

“I don’t know if getting too comfortable is the right word,” McDermott said. “We continue to learn what it takes to win in this league on a weekly basis and then trying to sustain it, which is tough. You look around the league and there’s a few teams that play very clean football and have very clean records every year, but those are few and far between.

“You have to keep your edge every week in this league, and we talked about it yesterday. It’s going to tear you, pull you in different directions and challenge you.”

Of course, the night before the Chiefs game, he offered a challenge of his own.

According to Taylor, McDermott showed the team predictions of 19 analysts (print and broadcast) and 17 speculated Kansas City would win.

And the coach didn’t deny the strategy.

“Really it’s just about getting the players in the right type of mindset before a game,” he said. “These guys know there’s not a whole lot of people out there that believe in them and that’s OK. We’ve got a bunch of guys in that locker room that have been told they’re not good enough or haven’t been good enough. We’ll use that. We’ll use it to our advantage and that’s what they did yesterday.”

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)