Week 21 QB projections • DAL Stats
QB Kyle Orton, Dallas Cowboys
HT: 6-4, WT: 220, Born: 11-14-1982, College: Purdue, Drafted: Round 4
| Outlook • Career Statistics • Game Logs • Split Stats • Play-by-play • Latest News |
Click here for 2011 preseason info
Stats and Week 21 Projection
| WK | OPP | RES | CMP | ATT | PYD | Y/A | PTD | INT | RSH | YD | Y/R | TD | FPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEASON TOTAL | 150 | 252 | 1758 | 7.0 | 9 | 9 | 6 | -4 | -0.7 | 0 | 115 | ||
Week 21 Injury Status and Other News
No official injury reports have been released yet
Week 21 Matchup Info
The Dallas Cowboys have a bye this week.
Game Summaries
Week 1 vs OAK - Orton had a nightmarish night, but he wasn't helped by the conservative playcalling. Orton was off most of the night, and he never seemed to be in rhythm for more than a few plays in a row. He had an interception on a miscommunication with Brandon Lloyd, and he also lost a fumble that pretty much ended the Broncos chances in a close game in the fourth quarter with them driving. He couldn't convert in the red zone until the last five minutes of the game, when he finally did seem to be getting into the flow of the game, but the Raiders running game kept him from having a chance to tie or win the game late.Week 2 vs CIN - Kyle Orton, with his receiving corps decimated, did a decent job in leading the offense against Cincinnati. However, Orton was mostly erratic with his throws, often missing targets or throwing ill-advised passes, notably one to the outside that should have been intercepted by the LB in coverage. When given time, Orton hit a couple of nice passes, including a comeback route to Matt Willis where the ball was perfectly delivered on a rope right into the receiver's hands. With the Broncos receiving corps decimated, the team relied on the ground game. As such, Orton operated off play action at times, but was unable to hit any big plays until later in the game. Orton tossed a touchdown pass to WR Eric Decker on a quick slant route. Orton put the ball out in front of Decker so he could simply run on to it and take it the rest of the way for a score. It was one of Orton's more impressive throws of the game. Orton looked to Decker for his second touchdown pass, throwing a well-executed back shoulder fade to the sideline. Two defensive backs got tangled up and both went for Decker, but both missed and Decker sprinted untouched into the end zone. The vibe around Mile High was not good for Orton, who was stripped of the football by DE Michael Johnson after holding the ball too long. This play was followed by boos from certain pockets of Bronco fans. Orton's performance overall, considering his lack of receivers, was commendable, but his overall play will be increasingly scrutinised in the coming weeks.
Week 3 at TEN - Kyle Orton had an uneven performance against the Titans in week three. On the one hand he was successful in engineering drives that kept the chains moving. On the other hand, he threw two untimely interceptions that stopped momentum at key moments. His second interception came on the final offensive play of the game for the Broncos. On the play, the ball was batted at the line of scrimmage and fell in to the waiting arms of Will Witherspoon. Orton's biggest problem against Tennessee was an inability to pass the ball downfield. While he had a 32 yard completion to tight end Daniel Fells, only two of his 23 other completions went for more then an 15 yards. Otherwise, Orton spent much of the day throwing screen passes, slants, and out routes to his receivers in hopes that they could create yardage after the catch. His best pass of the day came on a 5 yard pass to Matt Willis that resulted in the first points of the game. On the play, Willis lined up on the right side and ran a quick out to the front corner of the endzone. Orton took the snap, quickly pivoted, and riffled the ball to Willis before the covering linebacker could get outside to cover him.
Week 4 at GB - This was a game where Denver needed Kyle Orton to play above his capabilities and unfortunately he did not. His first throw of the game was an overthrow to his TE Daniel Fells heading to the sideline. That set the tone for what was going to come later. On the 2nd drive of the game Orton threw a 10 yard out to Eric Decker but Charles Woodson had other ideas and quickly undercut the pass and intercepted it returning it all the way for a pick 6 on Orton. Early on in the game Orton looked very shaky. Once Denver was behind 21-3 he started to put together a couple drives to help Denver pull within 21-17. At one time he was actually 16 for 20 in the 1st half. But along the way he had some terrible throws. On a flea flicker with Brandon Lloyd 20 yards behind the defense he under threw the ball so badly that Lloyd had to not only wait but almost fall to the ground in order to make the catch and then Green Bay caught up to him and kept him from scoring. Later in the 2nd half he almost repeated the same throw that was picked off by Woodson, only this time it was Morgan Burnett who undercut the throw and simply could not come down with the ball or it would have been an interception. The interception later in the game b Sam Shields was another badly under thrown ball as Shields was beaten on the play by Lloyd but had time to recover and make the interception. He did manage to hit Eric Decker in the 2nd quarter on a 33 yard touchdown that was put where only the WR could make a play on it. There just were not enough big plays by Orton and he does not have the arm strength to make defenses pay down the field.
Week 5 vs SD - Right from the outset, it was painfully obvious who the fans wanted to see in the game. On nearly every incomplete pass, every poor decision, every punt...the fans clamored for Tim Tebow to get a chance to play. It didn't help that Orton played about as poorly as he ever has. He was in the process of being wrapped up and falling away to his left, so he made the truly awful decision of trying to throw the ball against his body out in the flat to the right side. The pass was, not surprisingly, intercepted. Later, he let one fly downfield while on the run that also should've been intercepted, but was instead dropped by the defender. Every time he threw a third down incompletion or a short pass or a throwaway, there was a camera shot of Tebow. Orton just looked bad, throwing balls behind guys, in front of guys...anywhere but where it needed to be. Finally, by the middle of the third quarter John Fox decided he had seen enough and sent Tebow in. At that point, the Broncos trailed 23-10. With Tebow in the game, they outscored San Diego 14-6 and had the ball with a chance to win it in the final seconds. The Broncos are off next week, but Tebow has certainly tossed his hat into the ring to potentially start over Orton when the team returns from its bye week.
Week 13 at CHI - Orton opened the second quarter after Palko had a very pedestrian 1st quarter (27 passing yards and was sacked twice to end the first quarter). On his first play, Orton dropped back and threw the ball deep down the middle of the field. The ball was way off targets and fell harmlessly incomplete, but Orton took a hard shot and dis-located his index finger on his throwing hand. He went to the sideliens, had it popped back into place but did not return to the game after that.
Week 15 vs GB - You might look at the 19-14 score and Orton's 0 TD-0 INT performance as a sign that he was merely a game manager on Sunday. The fact is he was one part Pro Bowl QB (between the 20s) and one part rusty QB. Orton marched the Chiefs up and down the field against the Packers' secondary only to find himself (and the offense) completely confounded once they got inside the red zone. Orton was an astounding 22/25 for 291 yards outside the Packers 20 in this game but just 1/6 for 8 yards inside the red zone. On the first drive, Orton led the Chiefs on a 14 play, 79 yard drive before having TD passes dropped by both Steve Breaston and Leron McClain. On the second drive, he took the Chiefs right back to the red zone with a couple of beautifully executed play-action fake passes to wide open targets. This time the red zone failures were his own as he underthrew Jon Baldwin and Dwayne Bowe at the goal line on back to back plays. Both throws were back shoulder down the left sideline and just a little bit short of the target. Orton completed a perfectly timed deep hitch route for 14 yards to Dwayne Bowe to start the Chiefs third drive. Later in the drive he again hooked up with Bowe on a pump-and-go for 15 yards, fooling DB Charles Woodson badly with the pump fake. The Chiefs took the air out of the ball a bit in the middle of the game, running on 9 out of 10 plays (for a grand total of 18 yards) but that really worked to Ortons' advantage when he went back to the play-action in the third quarter and found tight end Leonard Pope wide open in the seam for 39 yard gain. In the 4th quarter, Orton again found Pope open on the play action, this time for 33 yards, all the way down to the Packers' 3 yard line. He then made nearly his biggest mistake of the game, forcing a ball to Jon Baldwin that could have been picked off. It was not and Chiefs settled for their 4th FG of the game. As impressive as Orton's number were, they could have been much better as he was pretty unlucky to not have at least one TD pass in the game.
Week 16 vs OAK - Once again Orton marched the Chiefs up and down the field only to find it almost impossible to finish the drive. The game started pretty rough for Orton as he threw incomplete on his first three passes. Considering that one went to a tackle and another to a fullback it isn't all that surprising that two of the three were dropped. Orton completed 3 straight on the Chiefs first scoring drive, all three short passes to different receivers. Orton nearly reversed his red zone fortunes in the second quarter when he threw a near perfect pass to Dwayne Bowe on a post in the end zone. Unfortunately, the star wide out dropped the pass and Orton underthrew his next pass into the arms of a Raiders defender. Orton completed 4 of 6 passes in the two minute drill to end the half including a well thrown post to Bowe and a perfectly timed out to Baldwin but the drive resulted in a blocked FG and he couldn't carry the momentum over to the second half. After a slow start to the half, Orton connected beautifully with Terrence Copper for a 43 yard gain. Orton first made a great play fake to freeze the linebackers, then looked off the safety before hitting Copper in stride well downfield. That put the Chiefs in the red zone again and their struggles continued. On third and goal, Orton had a wide open Jackie Battle in the end zone but he underthrew the pass and had it deflected at the line. It should have been an easy TD. Orton didn't start the 4th quarter much better as he threw his second pick. It was again a post to Bowe, this time Orton threw it just behind his target and the Raiders' DB stepped in front of Bowe to make the pick. Orton's best drive of the day came on with 2:57 to go in the game and the Chiefs down 7. He had plenty of help from his backs and receivers on the drive including a great diving catch made by Bowe to start the drive. Orton then connected with Bowe for 13 yards across the middle just before the 2 minute warning. Two plays later he threw a screen pass to Dexter Mccluster who used his speed and great blocking to turn it into a 49 yard pass, setting the Chiefs up again in the red zone. Orton wasted no time in throwing and hitting Bowe with a well-placed back shoulder bullet for his first passing TD as a Chief. Orton got one more chance in regulation and connected with Bowe over the middle for 25 as he was hit and hit Terrence Copper in the flats on a ball just out of the defenders reach. Only another blocked FG prevented him from being the hero. He can only hope that the TD pass to Bowe finally rid the Chiefs of their red zone demons.
Week 17 at DEN - If anyone ever doubted the importance of Dwayne Bowe to the Kansas City passing attack, a look at Orton's production from this game would be all you would need. Orton was 10/18for 128 yards in the first half with Bowe in the game. In the second half with Bowe on the sideline he was 5/11 for 52 yards. One of Orton's completions to Bowe down the left sideline may have been a TD had Orton led Bowe by just a little more, but the receiver had to veer to the sideline and went out of bounds after the catch. On the Chiefs lone TD drive, Orton focused mostly on Bowe, completing his only three passes to him. Orton also made a perfect throw on a deep in to Bowe just before the half. In the second half Orton really didn't have anyone that could get open. He threw a nice slant to Breaston where only he could catch it. He also connected with Leonard Pope who was wide open because of a great play action fake. In the 4th quarter Orton's only real connection of note was a great throw on 3rd and 9 to Jon Baldwin right at the marker. It was by no means a stellar performance from Orton but the game script and Bowe's second half absence had a lot to do with that.