It's time to end the Trevor Siemian experiment at quarterback. It was a nice story — the seventh-round pick beats out the first-round pick two years in a row. It really was. Siemian deserved the gig, too. But no more.
Not after the way the last four games have gone for the 25-year-old out of Northwestern, whose college career was so underwhelming he nearly quit football to work in real estate.
Siemian's performance on Monday Night Football in a 29-19 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was atrocious. Siemian finished the game with 19 completions on 36 attempts. He threw three pitiful interceptions — the first to Marcus Peters that hit the corner in stride and the second an overthrown duck while rolling to his right.
The errant throws were Siemian's sixth and seventh interceptions in the last five weeks alone. (Later on, he'd toss an eighth.) Siemian's thrown just three touchdown passes in that time. It's true that the line Siemian plays behind isn't very good. Denver's right tackle situation is a mess. Same goes for the left guard spot. But there's no way Siemian should be this bad.
Even ESPN analyst Jon Gruden, who spews a special kind of sunshine, was calling for Broncos head coach Vance Joseph to make a quarterback change coming out of half time. Joseph chose not to, and his team lost for the fourth time in the last five games.
Siemian was marginally better in the second half, helping lead an 80-yard touchdown drive and nearly throwing a touchdown that Bennie Fowler dropped. But in the fourth quarter, he threw another awful interception that ended any hope Denver had of completing a comeback.
Denver lost the turnover battle 5-2. Getting beat in the takeaway column has become a pattern for this Broncos team. They're now minus-11 in turnover differential, the second-worst mark in football.
Jamaal Charles coughed up a fumble in the first quarter that the Chiefs returned 45 yards for a touchdown. It wasn't exactly a storybook homecoming for the Chiefs' all-time leading rusher.
Denver's defense performed admirably against what's arguably football's most explosive offense. It limited Kareem Hunt, the NFL's yards-from-scrimmage leader, to 46 yards on 22 carries. Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, an MVP candidate, completed less than half of his passes (14 of 31) and threw for 202 yards.
In the end, though, it didn't matter. Another impressive performance from the defense was wasted. Denver fell to 3-4, and the next two games on the schedule — at Philadelphia and vs. New England — don't look easy.
It's time to make a change at quarterback. Denver can't go on like this. Put Brock Osweiler in there and see what happens. Throw Paxton Lynch (if healthy) to the wolves and find out what you have in him. It can't get any worse than it already is.
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