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Published on 10/04/2010 at Mon Oct 04 10:57.
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Orton, Lloyd quietly becoming dangerous passing tandem

Posted Mon Oct 4th by

Michael Griffin #33 of the Tennessee Titans loses his helmet as he tackles Brandon Lloyd #84 of the Denver Broncos at LP Field on October 3, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. Denver won 26-20. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Michael Griffin #33 of the Tennessee Titans loses his helmet as he tackles Brandon Lloyd #84 of the Denver Broncos at LP Field on October 3, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. Denver won 26-20. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

The NFL’s leading passer has found a new favorite target, and it’s not Larry Fitzgerald.

Kyle Orton and journeyman receiver Brandon Lloyd have hooked up 25 times for 454 yards (an 18.2 yards per connection average). Just two yards behind Reggie Wayne, Lloyd ranks second in the NFL in receiving yards through the first four weeks. Lloyd is no scoring machine–though he has scored as many times as Brandon Marshall–as Orton has done a great job of spreading the ball around, and has only hit Lloyd once for a Touchdown. Even so, he is one of the most dangerous receivers in the NFL, shredding every secondary he’s faced this season.

An 8-year veteran, Lloyd isn’t the only Bronco feeding off Orton’s career year. With one more score than Lloyd and nearly 300 receiving yards, Eddie Royal is also ranked among the top 12 receivers in the NFL. Rounding out the dynamic passing attack, Jabar Gaffney and rookie Demaryius Thomas have combined for 33 catches going for 400 yards and two touchdowns.

His exceptional numbers have earned Orton a 96.3 passer rating, and the respect of the rest of the National Football League. With twelve games left to play, Orton has gone 118-of-175 for 1,419 yards, and 6 touchdowns with three interceptions – his best numbers to start a season in his 6-year career.

Traveling to face the Ravens in Baltimore in week 5, the Broncos passing attack will have to continue to thrive if Denver is to survive another match against the team that sent their 2009 season down the tubes.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Good article. I'm highly concerned Orton is going to be exposed against the Ravens defense. That is one of the better teams in the league at reading plays and especially the QB's eyes.

    The one thing Orton has failed to show is an ability to scan the field well.

    One of the things I really love about the Pittsburgh organization is they don't buy into all that crap and complex game planning. Of course they mix things up too but for the most part they draft specific players who can do a couple of things specifically well and plug them into a straight up system where they are only asked (for the most part) to do those things play in and play out.

    It's a straight smash mouth style where they don't care if you know what they are going to do because they believe they can do it better then you can stop them anyway.

    That's one of my biggest problems with Denver and honestly I think may be why Orton can't scan the field. Every week an entirely new 90 page playbook is installed. It's just too difficult to take your eyes off of a receiver if you're not 100% sure where the cut is. Or how do you scan the field if you're not even sure where everyone else is going.

    Several of Orton's bad throws under pressure could have been the WR's fault for not breaking off their route. McD has the WR's running 2 – 3 routes on each play. Now if it's a brand new playbook every week, how do you expect them to always make the right read?

    Then you look at the running plays and even they all look just a little bit different. Like McD is trying to find one that works, instead of just running the same 2 or 3 over and over until the line and the RB's start making the right reads.

    Hopefully I'm wrong about the whole thing. I guess we will find out on Sunday.

  • herc_rock

    Let's see how Brandon Lloyd acts after he only gets two catches on four targets in one of these next few games.

    Will he be the same ol' Brandon Lloyd, or has he grown up a bit?

  • Nisse

    u sound like al davis.

  • Gary_in_SD

    I'm more worried about his scrambling ability. I think he has a great arm, terrific accuracy, and a good ability to read, but he looks at time like his feet are stuck in concrete. My recommendation to him would be to work hard on the treadmill this week. Although he really surprised me on that game winning PI play. I was sure he was going to be sacked, then pulled off a miracle escape and an amazing throw. Great play and a super sweet win!

  • TheTroglodyte

    Actually I don't. Al Davis would say we aren't doing better because we're not using a 7 step drop. Aren't playing the ultra fast Willis and Thomas at WR. Don't have a QB who can throw 90 yards. Don't have a playbook from 1974 and don't have an owner who tells everyone else in the organization exactly what to do.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Out of 50 throws I can count on 1 hand how many times Orton looked over the whole field. I have to use two hands to count how many times I saw an open guy on the other side that he never looked towards.

    There is a reason Gaffney is telling Orton that he is open look his way but wasn't getting the ball. Orton isn't comfortable scanning for some reason.

    At home we can only see 1/8 of the field and I could still see open guys when the ball was being forced into coverage. That's going to be a big problem against good defenses if it doesn't get corrected.

  • flbronc

    while i agree that his scanning can be better, lets not take anything away from him yesterday. you mention it will 'be a big problem against good defenses'- they were the fifth best in the league. i almost think that was one reason he wasnt scanning.. the line broke down in front of him too fast. although he didnt scan as much as we'd want him to, he very rarely made a bad decision in where he threw the ball.

  • Shawnjones2

    It must be the new team looks like Zo's doing pretty good.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KNFQHNROCN7Z4CZSVDKSZ4SX7I Willie Beamon

    We dont run a scan the field offense we run a presnap read offense and Orton should know where the ball is going before its snapped .

    He may know that gaffney will be open 25 yards down the field based on what everyone else is doing but that doesnt mean he has the time to get him the ball so he must take the underneath stuff .

    He even said he wanted to get Gaffney the ball more but just didnt have time so he had to go to the short routes .

    Its always amazing to me when talking about a qb scanning the field from the shotgun when he never has the to move his head side to side because he can see the whole field from the gun.

    What Ive sen in these first 4 games is Orton doing a bunch of setting up the defense for something else later on . Orton attacking them with Lloyd on that one drive basically opened up the other side for Gaffney to get involved .

  • crazykid

    the ravens secondary is actually very weak this year (no ed reed or foxworth), so look for a big game from Orton again…

  • anthony33

    Just watched the Pats special teams destroy Miami. Wasn't Scott O'Brien, the Pats special teams coach, with us last year or am I dreaming?

  • Kawike

    O'Brien was with Denver for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2009, he was replaced by Mike Priefer, who is the current ST coach. Looks like he's doing a solid job over in NE though.

  • dbroncs24/7

    Did I miss something?? we won because of Orton right? or were you watching another game.

  • TheTroglodyte

    The Titans have also played bad teams to get that #5 ranking. You are right though, I shouldn't take anything away from what he did do.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Did we win because of Orton or because of the WR's play and defense? I'm not saying you did this but I am extremely amazed at how many of the exact same Bronco fans last year bitched non-stop about Orton when his play wasn't that bad are coming back this year praising him like he's the second coming of Montana.

    All I am saying is stop watching the box score and start looking at the film.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Watch the film, it's clear Orton is not seeing the whole field. Maybe it's the lines fault, maybe it's Mcd's fault and maybe it's Ortons fault. I'm not placing blame. It's more than obvious it's a problem though and it will start being exposed in a big way in the second half of the season if it doesn't get fixed as teams get more film to game plan against him.

    If I can tell which side of the field is going to get the ball on every snap, then it's only a matter of time.

  • herc_rock

    What film are you watching exactly?

  • TheTroglodyte

    Just rewatch plays on the DVR you can see a lot of it and watch the ESPN and NFL Network analyst shows (not the highlight shows) and they will break down a lot of that stuff in detail. Don't necessarily listen to what they are saying, just look at where Orton is obviously looking and where the ball gets delivered.

    Rewatch the seahawks game and check out how many times the defenders got the jump on him but just didn't make the play.

    I will say that at least Orton has been very good at throwing it where the defender has little chance to make the play, even if he does know where the ball is going.

  • herc_rock

    Yeah…he's “scanning the field” just poorly enough to complete 67% of his passes on the most attempts in the league.

  • AKfan

    If he would have scanned the field a little more he would have ended up like Cutler on Sunday night. Asking a qb to hold the ball for longer in a game when he got sacked 6 times is not a good idea. If Orton had all the time in the world and was throwing into triple coverage while a receiver was open on the other side of the field it would be a little different.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Ouch burn on me. Vince Young is completing 66.2% of his passes. He must be scanning the whole field too. lol that was a tool comeback guy, common you're better than that ;)~

  • herc_rock

    Way to ignore the last half of my sentence. Orton has over a hundred more pass attempts than VY. And he has a much higher yards per attempt average. Meaning he throws it more, throws it further down the field and completes it more often. Talk about “tool” comebacks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/msurber Michael Surber

    Nice Al Davis smack… all true of course!

  • Zbecker95

    Damn i cant wait to see how this game goes it will be a good competion between Loyd and Eddie.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Orton also has the best WR core in the league to throw to, while I could probably make the Titans roster as a WR. Face it guy, you never played the game and you don't know how to read a D and tell if I'm right or not so you're coming up silly sauce.

  • herc_rock

    Wow…you really think you're winning this argument?

    ALSO:
    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/corps

  • TheTroglodyte

    I didn't know we were having an argument. It's clear you don't understand the game and it's clear you are unwilling to actually watch the footage to come to any sort of logical conclusion so what would be the point of arguing? Besides, you're probably getting low on Kool-Aid and need to go to the store.

  • Zbecker95

    Damn i cant wait to see how this game goes it will be a good competion between Loyd and Eddie.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Orton also has the best WR core in the league to throw to, while I could probably make the Titans roster as a WR. Face it guy, you never played the game and you don't know how to read a D and tell if I'm right or not so you're coming up silly sauce.

  • herc_rock

    Wow…you really think you're winning this argument?

    ALSO:
    http://www.thefreedictionary.c…

  • TheTroglodyte

    I didn't know we were having an argument. It's clear you don't understand the game and it's clear you are unwilling to actually watch the footage to come to any sort of logical conclusion so what would be the point of arguing? Besides, you're probably getting low on Kool-Aid and need to go to the store.