Mile High Sports

Siemian didn’t wow against Green Bay, but he showed something important

Casey Light

Trevor Siemian didn’t get off to a great start in his first game since being named the Broncos opening day starter. Against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night, Siemian moved the offense just 22 yards and threw an interception in his first two possessions. It was what he did on his third drive, however, that shows why he earned the starting job.

If the measure of a man isn’t how often he gets knocked down, but how many times he gets back up, then Siemian is the right man to lead the Broncos.

After a punt to open the game and an interception in his own territory on the second drive, Siemian responded with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to get his Broncos back into the game. On the drive, Siemian was 3-for-5 passing for 30 yards. The highlight was a beautiful back shoulder pass to Jordan Taylor for 20 yards, which set up C.J. Anderson‘s 16-yard touchdown run. Siemian also scrambled for 16 yards on second down earlier in the drive to push the ball in to Green Bay territory. The touchdown brought Denver to within three points and took 4:40 off the clock.

Siemian’s struggles weren’t over, though, and his ability to bounce back shined through again.

Following the touchdown, Siemian hit Virgil Green on a 22-yard seam route on the second play of the next drive to get things moving nicely. A short run, an incompletion and a sack, however, had the Broncos punting again just a few plays later.

The next drive wasn’t much more productive. Emmanuel Sanders couldn’t haul in a deep pass down the right side that looked like it might have gone for a touchdown were it not for defensive holding. The Broncos moved the chains, but the drive stalled out and Anderson was stuffed twice on third- and fourth-and-short to give up the ball on downs.

Trailing 10-7 inside of 2:00 minutes, Siemian took over for one last drive with the ball at his own 40-yard line. After scrambling out of bounds to open the drive, he followed with five consecutive completions. Siemian connected on 5-of-6 attempts to get the ball to the 10-yard line with :04 on the clock. Brandon McManus hit a chip-shot field goal to tie things up at half.

It wasn’t a spectacular night for Siemian. He was a net plus-three in terms of points, as the interception he threw eventually turned into a touchdown for Green Bay. He failed to recognize open receivers on several occasions. His final line was 13-for-22 for 127 yards (5.8-yard average), 0 touchdowns and one interception. He took one sack for 10 yards and ended the night with a 56.4 rating (he ended last year with an 84.6 rating).

Siemian didn’t show on Saturday that he’s an all-world quarterback like the man opposite him, Aaron Rodgers (who left the game after only three possessions). Siemian did show that he’s a quarterback who can bounce back from a bad drive or two. that may be the most important thing we saw from Siemian all preseason.

During the game, the team at MHS was keeping tabs on Siemian’s performance. Here’s what they had to say, along with input from some of our favorite follows on Twitter, as the game unfolded…

https://twitter.com/RonnieKRadio/status/901617774367186944

https://twitter.com/RonnieKRadio/status/901621035212062721

https://twitter.com/RonnieKRadio/status/901624052539895808

https://twitter.com/RonnieKRadio/status/901628122633650176

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