ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Trying to figure out Tyrod Taylor is like trying to tackle LeSean McCoy: Right when you think you have him pinned down, he darts off and leaves you in the dust.

When McCoy, held to 21 yards on 14 carries, proved unusually easy for the Denver Broncos to bottle up on Sunday, it was the Buffalo Bills quarterback who shook off one of his worst games in Week 2 to down the Broncos, 26-16, with one of the best performances of his career.

Taylor completed 20 of 26 passes for 213 yards, two touchdowns and a 126.0 QB rating -- the fourth best of his 32 games as Buffalo's starter. His 76.9 percent completion rate was his second best since joining the Bills, and 42.3 percent of his passes went for first downs, the fourth-highest rate in his Bills career.

"Tyrod responded in a major way today," McCoy said after the game. "And hey, if we’ve got to win like that, I’ll bet my last dollar, and you know I’m a betting man. So if we’ve got to win like that with Tyrod, we can do that."

Making Taylor's afternoon more impressive? He did it against a Broncos defense that entered Sunday with the NFL's lowest opposing quarterback rating (74.8) since the start of the 2015 season. Denver has two of the league's best cornerbacks in Chris Harris and Aqib Talib. And the Broncos were expected to use elite pass-rusher Von Miller to pressure Taylor, as Bills rookie Dion Dawkins manned the left tackle position in place of an injured Cordy Glenn.

Taylor was sacked four times on Sunday, but some of those were less the fault of the offensive line and more the product of Taylor leaving the pocket and trying to run. Taylor made one of the best plays of the game when he nearly fell to his knees trying to avoid pressure on a third-and-6 in the fourth quarter but avoided contact with the turf to keep the play alive, running for a first down and extending a Bills drive that resulted in a game-clinching field goal.

Continuing to deal with the August trade of his top receiver, Sammy Watkins, it was another remarkable bounce-back game for Taylor, who has a knack for quieting doubts about his starting status after each of his poor outings.

In his eight career games with the Bills in which he has posted a passer rating of less than 80, Taylor has responded the next week with a passer rating of at least 90.8, including six games with a rating of at least 100 and three with a rating over 110.

The latest example was Sunday's outing, as Taylor's 126.0 rating made fans forget about his 79.6 rating in the Bills' loss the week before to the Carolina Panthers. Taylor had a total of 6 first-half passing yards versus Carolina, reigniting some fans' calls for the Bills to turn to rookie fifth-round pick Nathan Peterman at quarterback sooner rather than later.

Now, like his slippery fourth-quarter run, Taylor has once again eluded defeat and found daylight as the Bills' starter.