"He's like a little Peyton": Siemian earns Broncos' respect

Thursday night’s Denver Broncos’ 21-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers was not pretty. They trailed most of the game, had countless mistakes across the entire team, lost the turnover battle and looked inept at times, but they won. It was like a re-run of many games last season with one noticeable difference.

Trevor Siemian took the helm as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. In his first regular season start, he struggled, throwing two costly interceptions which contributed to the team’s ten-point halftime deficit but the early failures did not diminish the “never quit” attitude his team is used to. He just had to prove he had it in him as well.

“I think Trevor played well. Obviously, he had two balls he would like to have back. He’s going to make mistakes. He’s a young kid but man he played with a lot of poise. He’s down 10 to a championship football team,” Head Coach Gary Kubiak said following the win. “He is going to watch film and he is going to get so much better. We made so many mistakes as a team but I thought Trevor held up his end of the bargain well.”

Siemian’s statistical line was far from impressive. He completed 18-of-26 attempts for just 178 yards and a touchdown to accompany his two interceptions, leading to a 69.1 passer rating.

On the other side of ball quarterback, Cam Newton showed why he was the 2015 NFL Most Valuable Player through the first three quarters. He avoided the rush, found big chunks of yardage through the air and at times, made it look surprisingly easy against one of the league’s best defenses. Broncos’ defensive end Derek Wolfe, despite some glaring miscues, was ecstatic about the ugly victory.

“You can’t really put words to it. It’s kind of surreal. We know how good we are. We made a ton of mistakes in this game, as a whole team period,” Wolfe said shortly after the victory. “When you can come out there and fight for four quarters against a guy like that, a team like that and you come out on top it’s surreal.”

As the game progressed the Broncos defense zeroed in on Newton and forced an interception on the third play of the fourth quarter. Conversely, Siemian led two touchdown drives on the Broncos’ first two drives of the final quarter. The offense as a whole did move the ball well and 148 rushing yards loosened things up for Siemian. Even the second turnover by Siemian was quickly dismissed by Kubiak.

“The second interception wasn’t really his fault,” he said. “We had a safety come, hugged up on a blitz that we had coached up at halftime over and over and over again and we still didn’t pick it up. In fairness to the kid, we should have picked it up, he should have been able to step and throw. We didn’t get that done. It’s a team game. Obviously, you have to protect the ball down there but we sure as hell could’ve helped him.”

Despite his early struggles, Siemian kept the same composure that teammates professed all week that he possessed.

“I am so proud of Trevor. He is just one of those guys that are just so poised. He is like a little Peyton [Manning] walking around. He did it the right way. He found a guy in Peyton Manning and said, ‘I’m going do do everything I possibly can to think like him, diagram defense like him’ and you can see it on the field,” Wolfe said. “You got a quarterback out there who doesn’t give up no matter what. You know that that guy is going to be there fighting, scratching and clawing with you.”

Siemian admitted in his postgame press conference that nerves got to him but ultimately last year’s up-and-down season helped him prepare for games like Thursday night. When asked if anything surprised him about Siemian’s game-day demeanor Kubiak quickly answered.

“No, because that is the way he has been, he really has. I have sat down with a lot of quarterbacks the night before games, went through game plans, made calls and had them spit football back at you and this kid is really exceptional.”

If Siemian is like Manning, as Wolfe explained, his postgame press conference reinforced that notion. Siemian spent the roughly four minutes praising his teammates and explaining all the work they have to do to improve.

“I’m just super confident in the group of guys we have offensively,” he stated plainly. “There are a lot of vets and a lot of great leadership in that group that I can lean on, and I’m just really confident in those guys.”

Siemian started the game off with five straight pass plays which Kubiak admitted was to show that same confidence in his quarterback. Although Siemian’s game was not near Manning’s best statically, it seems the players and coaches around him are more than willing to get behind the formerly unknown player.

This Broncos team certainly knows that some games are not pretty but experience is the only way to become battle-tested and if those battles end in wins, even better.

“I want him to know I believe in him and the only way to get better as a player is for your coach to trust you and put you in those situations,” Kubiak said.

Through one tough game situation, Siemian was tested and he passed in thrilling fashion.