Upon Further Review by Orton
By Zach Eisendrath
DenverBroncos.com
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Following Friday night's preseason opener, Kyle Orton stepped inside a Candlestick Park media room and gave reporters a quick assessment of his Broncos debut. He said he felt comfortable leading Denver's offense down the field, but admitted that he needed to correct a few poor decisions.
Three days later, Orton's self-examination hasn't changed much.
With the assistance of live-game footage, he had the opportunity to sit down with Josh McDaniels and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy at Dove Valley this week and review his play.
After thoroughly evaluating the tape, Orton once again came away optimistic about how, for the most part, he and his offensive counterparts executed against the 49ers, saying his unit left the Bay Area with a lot of confidence. And while Orton certainly would like to have his three first-half interceptions back, he believes he will benefit from those miscues in the long run.
"I did a lot of good things and made three bad decisions," Orton said. Certainly it's something that I've got to correct, and do it quickly, but I haven't been a turnover-prone guy in my career and I'm not going to sit here and press about it."
Orton said he was most disappointed with his first error in judgment, an interception that came on the team's first offensive possession. After quickly and effectively leading the club downfield and deep into the red zone, he dropped back to pass on second-and-goal from the 3-yard line. Looking to connect with Daniel Graham in the end zone, Orton tried to fit the ball into a tight window and Nate Clements picked off the pass.
"I'm smarter than that to put the ball in jeopardy," Orton said. "That ball should've gone out of the back of the end zone, and we would've had a good chance on third down or kicked a field goal."
In total, Orton finished his Broncos debut 9-of-16; amassing 89 yards through the air for his efforts. While Orton had his share of critics following his first game as signal caller for the Broncos, Chris Simms wasn't one of them. In fact, the club's No. 2 quarterback was one of Orton's biggest advocates following the exhibition contest.
"Kyle didn't struggle," Simms said after the game. "I really don't think he did. I know he made some mistakes, but he moved the ball well in all his series. I think he'll tell you the same thing -- he just missed three throws that I see him make every day in practice. Kyle's a good player, I know he'll bounce back and he'll be ready to go next week."
Orton's bounce-back ability is already in full display at Dove Valley. On Sunday, at the team's first practice following the game, he worked diligently to correct his mistakes -- zeroing in on his miscues during a series of walkthroughs. On Monday morning, when the club returned to full pads, Orton looked sharp throughout 11-on-11s, drawing praise from fans after connecting on a pair of 40-plus yard bombs to Eddie Royal and Jabar Gaffney.
After starting 33 games in Chicago, Orton recognizes the high expectations that fans put on starting quarterbacks throughout the NFL. He isn't shying away from those expectations. Far from it. Instead, he is focused on improving each day.
"I understand they want us to be playing perfect right off the bat, and that's just how it is in this league," Orton said of the fans. "But I just try to stay on track, do my job and get better this week and play better on Saturday."
LEARNING AS THEY GO
Overall, McDaniels was pleased with how the team performed in a number of areas on Friday night. Specifically, the first-year head coach was satisfied that the club recorded only two negative run plays in 67 snaps.
But, like any detail-oriented coach, McDaniels' focal point this week will be in correcting the deficiencies he saw against San Francisco. One of those was on defense, where he thought his team gave up too many yards on second-and-long situations.
"There are pros and cons on both sides of the ball," McDaniels said.
"We are working diligently out here to try to fix the things that we feel, at this point, (are) things that we either struggled with or we made some mistakes on. All of the mistakes that we feel like we made on Friday night and in practice are fixable and correctable, and that's hopefully what we are targeting and trying to improve on."
McDaniels hasn't just been zeroing in on correcting his players' mistakes. He's also focused on fixing a few slip-ups the team's coaching staff experienced during their first game together as a unit.
"We had a couple delayed substitutions, which forced us to use a couple time outs," he said. "In the preseason, there are 80 guys on the sidelines, so you have got to be on top of that a little bit more because we have got a little bit more moving parts."
McDaniels is holding himself accountable, too. He is looking to improve upon his game-management skills as the exhibition season continues.
"I can learn something from every one of these preseason games," he said. "I learn something from every one of these practices and try to keep notes and do a better job each day that I am out here. Hopefully, I will do a better job in Seattle, and our team and our staff will perform the same way."
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