Orton's Perfect Game!

receivers were dropping passes all over the league yesterday. ugly to watch. week 1 jitters?

It’s nice to look at the situation from all sides. Very helpful, PNB. Each year, there is some of this on opening weekend, but this is the worst that I recall too.

….is nowhere nearly a “completed” pass, as a drop might be construed.

That said, I think the biggest problem was the tendency to throw to receivers over the middle just as they were about to be drilled by oncoming defenders….not a great way to keep a healthy receiving corp.

Pretty obvious that working together will only improve the drop ratio….BMarsh in particular….

I have a theory about all the dropped passes around the NFL, and most especially by the Broncos. First, it’s opening day and there are some jitters. However, this time it was unique. I’ve never quite seen anything like it. That being said, I believe receivers are becoming the “Divas” of the league. There were always a few “Divas”, like Owens and Moss. But it’s gotten to the point were players like Marshall, who’s been injured in the offseason and has terrible off-field issues, are thinking they deserve the same pay as a Terrel Owens. Truth be told, Owens deserves to be paid over 10 million. Marshall deserves to be paid 2 million, respectively. These guys need to get their acts together, before they go out asking for more money. And first and foremost, they need to catch balls before they go out asking for more money. The biggest problem we have this year with the “Diva” perception of receivers…A rookie, Michael Crabtree, holding out when he hasn’t even played a snap in the NFL, and another rookie, Darius Heyward-Bey, getting a ridiculous contract from the idiotic Al Davis. It only builds up these receivers so much that they think they’re gods. We need to see you perform, or you’re not getting paid in Denver. Go Broncos!

Point well made and puts things in perspective. Funny that perfection is not necessarily a prerequisite for success.

Somewhere, Lombardi’s ghost is growling at Kyle Orton.

I like it so much, but I couldn’t call it a perfect performance either. It was definately a great way for Orton to start the year (as i’m sure the coaches will have bigger fish to fry this week). Kyle is progressing with each week, fixing his errors, and limiting his mistakes. After our receivers get reamed this week for their performance, we can expect a much better offensive game this sunday.

Additionally I know Dawkins will be harping on his guys to find more ways to get themselves off the field. I can’t remember which post-game interview it was but some player said (paraphrased) that it wasn’t so much the offense keeping them on the field, but them not finding enough ways to get themselves off the field. I love this, whether its true or not, our defense has obviously set a very high standard for itself and I believe it is because of all the high quality character, and proven winning veterans that refuse to accept even a great performance as “good enough”.

Bottom line is we need to get better. Hope to see much improvement in the offense this week.

Say the recievers make 7 of the passes that were dropped, then that gives Orton 24/28 and the drives would have continued. The holding call when Bucky caught a pass for a 1st down in the RZ. Marshall bomb down the middle was a little under thrown but if you get your hands on the ball you catch it. I get tired of these so called professional announcers putting the blame on the quarterback when these premadonna wide receivers need to share in the blame. Orton’s passing rating of 100.7 was whittled on by the receivers! nuf said. Orton will do his job if the other 11 do theirs.

Orton threw two flat passes that were tipped – that’s completely on him. But when a QB has 9 passes dropped – 9! – and still has a QB rating of over 100 and a completion percentage of over 60, he hasn’t had the terrible day that some of the folks are touting.

I, having watched the Broncos for one year short of fifty years, should know better than to throw a QB under the bus after one regular season game.

I did just that….and stand corrected.

For some reason, however, I still feel Brandstater has a weird intangible poise at QB that I haven’t seen from Orton.

The Bengals receivers dropped many too, which I guess means that our defense is not as good as they looked? I do agree that Orton played better than he appeared to play during the game. Nice post.

something coach mcd recognized in the very talented jay cutler(sorry to bring HIM up) was his distinct belief that he BY HIMSELF was the determining factor in the success or failure of the Broncos. he had to make the throw, he could not get sacked, had to throw the block… it relied on him.

on the other hand, we have a guy like Orton (or Cassel, if we want to go there which we do not) who seems convinced his job is to merely distribute the ball to his teammates, understanding a play does not rely on 1 great action or player, but 11.

i said it on another post, and it bears repeating, with Denvers talented offense, ill take the guy who gives his teammates a chance to win over the guy who assumes he is the teammates only chance to win.

Even with Orton’s “perfect game”, which I agree it was pretty darn close to being, the team still did not score a lot of points and had trouble on 3rd downs. I place most of the blame on the OLine and RB’s for that.

Second, Orton simply impresses me. Yet he does not seem to impress anyone else, outside of MHR insiders. The guy is not flashy enough, I guess.

Third, Orton has a LOT of upside. I watched Tom Brady and noticed his eerie calmness in the pocket and how he ALWAYS steps into a throw whenever possible with near perfect torque. By that I mean that he uses the torque in his “center” coupling that with leg strength and arm strength to throw a usually perfect strike. Brady does very little “dancing” in the pocket. Orton is not there with his mechanics yet. I still see a lot of simple mechanics coaching improving his game enormously. Orton threw some throws too low, others too high, and others where his receiver could not catch it in stride. Those accuracy issues I believe can be corrected through coaching. What cannot be coached is that Orton has superior decision making skills. Add in better check-downs, pump fakes, hard counts, etc., Orton will continue to improve.