Kyle Orton: Shot Putter
by John Morgan on Aug 26, 2009 5:48 PM PDT
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PrintIt's better to play well in the preseason than win. Allowing an 86 yard drive is more significant than stopping it at the one. The drive ended when Kyle Orton left-handed shot put the ball into a crowd of defenders. Ken Lucas intercepted a pass that begged to be intercepted. Seattle had bent but it did not break. But if this is the strategy, the Seahawks better hope for another wave of backups and bad quarterbacks like it faced in 2007.
Nevertheless, the conclusion of this drive was more palatable than the start. The defense came alive in the red zone: Pass rush where there hadn't been pass rush. Cover. Leroy Hill blasting Chris Kuper back into the hole. Darryl Tapp turning the corner against Ryan Clady and coming free at Orton. Kelly Jennings body-screening Jabar Gaffney and forcing an incompletion. Big ol' Cory Redding swimming Ryan Harris and creating pressure from the left.
The final play was successful, just not as successful as the outcome.
Broncos: Trips (left), TE (right), RB (right), Shotgun
Seahawks: 4-3
This is all about the defensive line. Redding is slow off the snap and stonewalled by Harris and Daniel Graham. Later, when Orton was scrambling, Redding freed himself and cut to the quarterback, but too late. Craig Terrill drops into a short zone. Patrick Kerney attacks the edge, cuts in and then out again closing on Orton but ultimately washed out by Clady. Red Bryant isolates Casey Wiegmann, drives him back so fast that guards Kuper and Ben Hamilton struggle to triple-team him, and drives him right at Orton. That's when Orton panics. There's a 62 in his face and two trunk like arms waving all around him. He scrambles left, switches the ball into his left hand and...
Seattle lucks out.
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You're not even looking at that incompletion the play before the INT
When Gaffney dropped that easy touchdown. That’s the seahawks breaking.
by Anticitizen_One on Aug 26, 2009 5:54 PM PDT reply actions
As a Moreno fantasy owner in a keeper league
I really hope to never see that playcalling at the goalline again. The Broncos had first and goal at like the 5. They do a running play and get the ball to the 1.5-2 yard line. From then on they call 3 straight shotgun passes until Orton finally throws that left-handed pick. Why you would never run the ball again from there and why you would go into shotgun all three times is beyond me.
Here’s a graph showing my opinion of McDaniels’ playcalling on those last four plays:
by Brendan Scolari on Aug 26, 2009 5:55 PM PDT reply actions
Sorry
I didn’t realize that pic was so big.
by Brendan Scolari on Aug 26, 2009 5:56 PM PDT up reply actions
height=200
You can dictate the maximum size of the pictures by including “height=X” (where X is a number less than 300) before the />.
Brett Favre is the Kenny Powers of football.
Or you could refer to this
Let’s try to go easy on the pictures.
Out of curiosity
Why are pictures discouraged?
by jacobstevens on Aug 27, 2009 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions
That pic is win!
Sam Bradford, future Seattle Seahawk.
by Carl Shinyama on Aug 26, 2009 11:26 PM PDT up reply actions
I love this:
Red Bryant isolates Casey Wiegmann, drives him back so fast that guards Kuper and Ben Hamilton struggle to triple-team him, and drives him right at Orton. That’s when Orton panics. There’s a 62 in his face and two trunk like arms waving all around him.
Nothing like seeing Big Red do well against a triple team to give me hope for his future success.
Havent seen that much at all since the days of Cortez.
Early prospect watch: RB C.J. Spiller, QB Jevon Snead, OT Ciron Black, DT Gerald McCoy, S Eric Berry, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Ras-I Dowling 6'2, 200, RB Jonathan Dwyer
Big Red and Mebane
The future center of our D-line. The Sushi Boys say, “We eat sushi and crush O-lines. That’s what we do. That’s who we are.”
Wait...
Seattle lucks out because it flushes a QB out of the pocket and he throws an interception under pressure? I’d say that was more because of good play on defense (and a shitty QB) than luck.
If Denver doesn't call
3 straight shotgun passes, if Denver’s O-Line doesn’t struggle to triple team Red Bryant, if Red Bryant doesn’t have a monster play, or if Orton doesn’t panic and make a terrible throw, this drive probably results in a TD, or at the very least ends with us having the ball on the 1, not a good place for an offense that hasn’t been successful for the last few drives. Instead, all of that happens together to get us the pick, leading to us getting the ball at the 20 and giving the offense a chance to march down and score.
Ever think there were reasons for those "if"'s?
Maybe Denver called 3 shotgun passes because they didn’t think they could run on our semi-goal-line offense.
Maybe Denver’s O-line isn’t as good as we thought, or maybe Red Bryant is actually good.
Maybe we panicked Orton because we made a good play.
If Orton had simply fumbled the ball to the ground, or a WR had almost caught a pass than it bounced off his fingers and into Lucas’s hands, I’d call that much more lucky.
I understand that Denver did play well enough, and us bad enough, to get down to the 20 or so. But after that I think we made a good play and Denver blew it. A better QB might not have made that mistake, so maybe we were lucky to not be playing that QB?
Maybe Denver called 3 shotgun passes because they didn’t think they could run on our semi-goal-line offense.
I have no idea why, the run on first down worked well enough. It seemed more like idiotic playcalling to me.
by Brendan Scolari on Aug 26, 2009 10:48 PM PDT up reply actions
Orton switched hands and shot putted it into a crowd Seahawks defenders.
How much more lucky do you want?
by John Morgan on Aug 26, 2009 10:52 PM PDT up reply actions
And he did this why?
Because he had all manner of time in the pocket and his WR’s were all wide open? No, because he was flustered, Bryant busted the pocket, and no one was wide open.
You can’t tell me that, under other circumstances Orton would have just dropped back, made a sandwich, and without much pressure and/or coverage, just decided to underhand the ball to Lucas. We made a PLAY, no matter how late it was.
I’m not saying we played great defense that whole drive, but to say we had no effect on the determining play – when you yourself cite Bryant for busting the pocket – is unfair to the team.
The point is that a non-loony QB would have chosen to throw it away, take the sack, or attempt to run for it.
Those are all still the results of good pressure, but they don’t result in a gimme turnover.
It would've been better if had taken the sack.
NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!
by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 27, 2009 10:27 AM PDT up reply actions
He could have run back ten yards and taken a knee
and it would have been a smarter decision.
by John Morgan on Aug 27, 2009 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Actually what I said was
The final play was successful, just not as successful as the outcome.
by John Morgan on Aug 27, 2009 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Pressure or no, a QB throwing a jump ball into the end zone with his off hand is fairy-dust lucky
by lemonverbena on Aug 27, 2009 6:02 AM PDT up reply actions
I love how Denver QB's are the ones that do this.
Jake Plummer and now Kyle Orton.
NEEDS MORE FREEDOM!
by Scruffy Lefty on Aug 27, 2009 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Huh.
I kind of doubt that when Hass was doing his little “spin-around” passes a few years ago, we were saying to ourselves “boy are we unlucky”… we were probably saying “that was a bad play”.
Look at it like this
That was a bad play by Orton. For sure. For the Broncos, that’s troubling, because the Broncos own Orton and are relying on Orton. For the Seahawks it’s luck. Seattle faced a bad quarterback at his absolute worst. Orton may never again do something more boneheaded than he did last Saturday. His play was tantamount to rushing twenty yards back and taking a knee. It was not unlike him just handing the ball to Ken Lucas. Seattle isn’t going to face many quarterbacks capable of such wonder-boners, and when it does, it won’t likely be the team to face those quarterbacks when they are at their absolute worst. So Seattle was lucky.
I'm beginning to love Red Bryant.
And don’t look now, but the fact he’s holding up health-wise is, so far, wonderful.
Early prospect watch: RB C.J. Spiller, QB Jevon Snead, OT Ciron Black, DT Gerald McCoy, S Eric Berry, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Ras-I Dowling 6'2, 200, RB Jonathan Dwyer
Me too
I also like the fact that he and Mebane are tight. A couple of guys that like hanging and working together could be a nice positive for the future of our team.
What I was loving about him is different.
He did not have the best conditioning last year, but this year he looks like he is in great shape.
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