Only one concern remains when it comes to Trevor Siemian

DENVER — Less than a month ago, the Denver Broncos were still trying to figure out if Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch was going to be their starting quarterback for 2017. Now, after two games of the regular season, the biggest concern surrounding their quarterback, Siemian, is if he can stay healthy enough to be their quarterback all season long.

“I thought Trevor played excellent, once again,” head coach Vance Joseph said after the teams dominant 42-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. “Very, very, very efficient with the football. He put us in good plays all night.”

For a second-straight week, the Broncos’ second-year starting quarterback outplayed his counterpart while leading his team to victory. On the night, Siemian finished 22-of-32 for 231 yards with four touchdowns and one interception for a 116 passer rating.

Siemian’s four touchdowns tied a career high and were the most by a Bronco at home since Nov. 23, 2014, when Peyton Manning had four against the Miami Dolphins. His six passing touchdowns on the season lead the entire league through the conclusion of Sunday’s Week 2 games.

With the help of a 23-yard touchdown run by C.J. Anderson, Denver’s offense put up 35 points on a Cowboys defense that gave up three total points to the New York Giants just a week ago.

The last time the Broncos scored more than 34 points was Week 17 of the 2014 season, when they put 47 on the Oakland Raiders. Since then, the team has hardly, if ever won because of their quarterback, often winning in spite of their signal caller.

“I thought he played tremendous once again,” Anderson said on Siemian’s performance. “When we protect him, good things happen… He’s the general and keeping us out there.”

While it’s just two games, Denver has been winning on the shoulders of Siemian, as both Joseph and Anderson emphasized. And like a team winning because of their quarterback, his play will directly affect the outcome of the team, something that hasn’t always been the case for the Broncos the past few years.

“If he plays that solid for us we will be hard to beat down the stretch,” Joseph said postgame.

Siemian’s lone mistake on the stat sheet wasn’t even his fault. According to Joseph, the interception was “more of a unit issue than a Trevor issue.” The head coach isn’t afraid to call out his quarterback for his mistakes, either.

Last week, after Siemian had another lone interception, he put all of the blame on him for the mistake. In classic Siemain form, he said the interception against the Cowboys “stinks” but was “just a miscommunication and a bad break.”

When the coaching staff put the ball into Trevor’s hands, the offense thrived. In the first three quarters, Siemian had 31 pass attempts, scoring five touchdowns in the team’s first seven possessions. In the fourth quarter, Denver threw the ball once, scoring no points on offense and having three drives all end in punts.

Inside the Broncos’ locker room, Siemian’s teammates are living by the old saying, “as the quarterback goes, so goes the team.”

“How we look at it is, if we can just protect Trevor—whether that was this scheme now or [Gary] Kubiak’s scheme last year—if we can protect Trevor, we give ourselves a shot,” Anderson said. “That’s how we look at it.”

Keeping No. 13 healthy could be the biggest question mark regarding the second-year starter, too. Last year, Siemian missed two games due to injury and after the Week 1 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, Joseph emphasized that Trevor needed to be smarter in avoiding hits to stay healthy for the team.

With his four touchdowns on Sunday night—in his 16th career NFL start, equivalent to one full season—Siemian has now thrown multiple touchdowns in three straight games, the longest active streak in the league and the longest in Denver since Manning’s record streak of 15 games in a row, spanning the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Back then, the Broncos won because of Manning. Siemian’s teammates believe that’s the case again with their quarterback.

“[No.] 13 can be a real good weapon for us if we keep him on his feet,” Anderson said.