» Ug, horrible game CosmicConservative: Rational Conservatism from the Rocky Mountains

Posted in November 9th, 2009

Orton sucked. But as Drax will point out, with no ability to run the ball, the Steelers were able to force him to pass.

What this game revealed to me is that Orton is an excellent precision pocket passer, but when he’s flushed and on the run, he is not very good. He tries, but his improvised shovel passes or side-arm throws or jump up and toss it throws are all off line just enough that it takes a great recovery by the receiver to catch it. And most of the time they don’t.

Denver may have a tough rest of the season if these last two games have revealed their inability to handle stacking the line and harassing Orton.

We’ll see, they’re still 6-2 anyway.

5 users commented in " Ug, horrible game "

Drax said,

in November 9th, 2009 at 10:23 pm

I didn’t watch enough of the game to say, but I started watching around mid-way in the 3rd quarter and Orton was not having a good day. Bad decisions (under pressure) and an inability to throw down the field.

He’s a Trent Dilfer kind of QB. He has to have all the other aspects of the game going fairly well so that he can “manage” the game. He does that quite well. But, he ain’t Favre…or, as some call Cutler, “mini-Favre.”

They’ll still make the playoffs, though. I still think that 10-6 is the least they’ll do. They just ain’t going anywhere after that.

Interested said,

in November 9th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

He tried like mad though

Intercepted 3 times – that’s vintage Farve.

pace said,

in November 10th, 2009 at 1:04 am

Denver had a pretty respectable first half. The defense had what, three sacks on Roth including stripping the ball for a TD.

Tomlin’s halftime adjustments clearly were able to establish some protection for his QB while his defense exposed Orton’s tendency to make poor decisions under pressure. Denver just fell apart. It was like watching two different games.

Andy said,

in November 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

I didn’t watch the whole game, but I saw the first interception. Oh man…bad decision…really bad decision.

But then again, I didn’t have 5 or 6 monsters charging at me. Had to get up early, so I cut it off mid third quarter…doesn’t sound like I missed much.

CosmicConservative said,

in November 10th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

On the third replay I finally saw what I think caused the interception. It was still a bad throw, but it’s a timing pass and when Orton was pulling the trigger on the throw, his receiver was getting bumped which threw off the timing. I think it was within the five yards for allowable contact, but it looked to me like I saw a bit of jersey grab, but still, that’s football and Orton should have pulled the ball back instead of letting it fly.