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Posted by Mile High Report: A Denver Broncos Blog on Friday, August 11, 2017
Here is a snippet our The Strongside Blitz newsletter:
What to say when someone says Trevor Siemian won the job last night.
No he didn't.
(choose one or multiple):
- Siemian's only scoring drive of the game came off of a long series where the Bears spotted him 35 yards in penalties. The Broncos started on Chicago's 20 yard line, C.J. Anderson had three runs for 19 yards, the Bears gave 35 yards in penalties, Siemian passed twice, completing one for 11 yards and Brandon McManus kicked a 38 yard field goal. That was Siemian's first and best drive of the night. It came with the first team offense and was against Chicago's first team defense.
- On Siemian's first play of the game he took a big sack, but more importantly he held the ball without scrambling for 4.66 seconds. That sounds quick, but consider that Siemian's 2016 average 'time-to-throw' was 2.7 seconds (that made him 27th in the NFL among starting quarterbacks last season). This means that the offensive line gave him almost two whole seconds longer than he averaged last season and he still took one to the chin.
- 3rd & 4 on what may be Siemian's final drive with 4:20 left in the 1st quarter and Siemian completes the pass to Jordan Taylor! For two yards! 4th down! What? Come on, man... This is why people think that Paxton is better. Siemian would get one more drive.
What to say when someone says Paxton Lynch lost the job last night.
No he didn't.
But he didn't do himself any favors either.
(choose one or multiple):
- He didn't have a single negative play outside of 3 incompletions. He wasn't sacked, he ran for 11 yards (on four carries, that's a 2.8 average yards-per-carry or better than Stevan Ridley), he didn't throw any interceptions and one of his long runs was a pretty damn impressive Ben Roethlisberger like 'I-wish-you-would' like domination of a bunch of defensive linemen and linebackers.
- He accounted for more total yards than Siemian. Yes, Siemian passed for 9 more yards than Lynch, but Lynch ran for 11 yards. And it's 2017, not 1996, if your quarterback isn't third on your team in rushing and he didn't put points on the board, you're using the wrong quarterback. Get me a guy that can run an offense capable of defeating an NFL defense. Tom Brady averaged 2.3 yards-per-carry last season.
Siemian's two worst plays were scarier than Lynch's two worst plays. Lynch ran instead of throwing and still got positive yards. Siemian narrowly avoided death while running backwards 20 yards and finally getting the ball off just in time. With 6:37 left in the 2nd quarter what looked like a bad Lynch pass to A.J. Derby, may have been a good pass to Cody Latimer that Derby misread. It ended up being Lynch's worst pass of the evening.