Coaches: Orton deserves some of shared blame in loss

ENGLEWOOD – Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton’s performance against Baltimore was pretty ugly, with less than 100 yards passing before a meaningless final drive.

The performance, however, wasn’t all Orton’s fault. His protection wasn’t fantastic, Denver’s receivers weren’t dynamic, and even the coaches acknowledged a fair share of responsibility for the 30-7 loss.

“Certainly, the quarterback is not absolved from any responsibility offensively,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. “He could have played better, but everybody I would feel the same about. It wasn’t like we had 20 guys on offense or 20 guys on defense play really well and a couple of guys ruined it for us.”

Orton completed 23-of-37 passes for 152 yards, and he completed six passes for 62 yards on Denver’s final drive with less than two minutes remaining.

The coaches reiterated they are very demanding of the quarterbacks and would be of Orton this week, but weren’t too critical of how he played Sunday, given how poorly the rest of the team played.

“There’s some things he could do better, but that’s going to come up every week,” offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said. “There’s always plays you’ll want to have back at that spot. It’s very difficult to play the perfect game as a quarterback. There’s definitely some things we’d love to have back and say ‘We wish we would have done this with the ball or made that decision’ but that’s all part of it.”

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