Broncos Quarterback Grade from First Road Win Over Cincinnati

The Denver Broncos earned their first road win over the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a close game until the fourth quarter, when the Broncos quarterback took his play to the next level. How well did he grade out?

Offensively for the Denver Broncos, they had a tough match-up against the Cincinnati Bengals. It didn’t help that they were at Paul Brown Stadium, which is a tough place to play. From the opening kickoff, it was clear that the Broncos were unsettled and the noise was getting to them.

Going into halftime, their performance was poor, despite 16 point on the board. Besides one of the two touchdowns in the first half, the Broncos were lucky to score point. Even coming out of halftime the offense looked poor. It wasn’t until the end of the third quarter that they really showed their potential. They reached that because the play at quarterback improved ten fold.

So how did the Broncos quarterback, Trevor Siemian, grade out? Editors note: Siemian will received five grades. One for each quarter and then an overall grade. This is to show just how different his play was quarter to quarter.

For the first quarter, Siemian was really bad. He managed to hit a few throws, but struggled to move the ball. On their first drive, Siemian went 1-3 for nine yards. One of the passes was tipped. Not a good start for a team on the road, and he actually looked rattled for a chance.

They managed to score on their second drive, but only a field goal. If not for the defense, they wouldn’t have been able to move the ball. On two occasions, the Broncos failed to pick up a third and long, but the Bengals got called for a penalty on defense, giving the Broncos a first down.

Siemian and the Broncos ended the first quarter on a three and out. It wasn’t pretty and Siemian was showed every one of his issues in the first quarter. There were no good/great throws from Siemian, just below average/average throws, which his receivers were able to do more with.

For the first quarter, Siemian got a 12.4 grade. That would be his lowest grade for a quarter, up to this point.

The second quarter wasn’t much better, despite how they started. Siemian threw a long touchdown to Sanders, but the pass was behind Sanders. Sanders had to stop and turn to make the catch. What makes this an issue is the luck involved. Had the Bengals defender been paying attention, he easily could have made an interception. Thankfully for the Broncos, he wasn’t paying attention and Sanders was able to score.

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That play was one of six plays where the Bengals defense should have had an interception. Three of the passes were actually dropped, which was lucky for the Broncos. A couple of those were on the Broncos next scoring drive, which would have taken away a touchdown.

To finish off that drive, Siemian hit Emmanuel Sanders for another touchdown. This was the first pro-throw that Siemian had made on the day. It was perfectly placed, good touch and zip and got there with perfect timing. It might have been his best throw so far in his young career.

It did do a lot for his grade, which was a 3.8 before this touchdown. After the touchdown, with excellent technique, his grade jumped to a 11.9, which is his grade for the second quarter. That is also his lowest quarter grade on the season.

Even though he had two touchdowns, he had four should have been intercepted passes on the quarter. His technique was sloppy and balls were poorly placed. One of his touchdowns came on a poorly placed pass. Stats are a small part of the grading formula because they don’t tell the whole story of a play.

The third quarter wasn’t much better for Siemian. Of course, they only ran four offensive plays in the whole third quarter. The first play on their first drive of the second half was a pass to Demaryius Thomas, which he had knocked out. The pass was a solid throw. Only other pass play in the quarter ended with Siemian being sacked.

The sample size was small for Siemian in the third quarter with only two passing plays. His sack he took was a bad one, and he could have dumped it off, though that was risky. His grade for the third quarter is a flawed 34.9. Had he had more chances, his grade could have been higher or lower than that.