Quarterback Trevor Siemian had never started a regular season game or thrown a regular season pass before Thursday night, but it didn’t take long for him to start piling up pass attempts on Thursday night.
Broncos coach Gary Kubiak called passes on the first five offensive plays of the night, something that he said after the game was designed to let Siemian “know I believe in him.” Siemian completed three of those five throws to kick off a night that would see him throw a pair of interceptions as the Panthers took a 17-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Siemian hit C.J. Anderson with a screen for a 22-yard touchdown to open the fourth quarter and scrambled for a first down a few plays after Cam Newton was intercepted to set up another Anderson score that put the Broncos in front for good later in the quarter. It all added up to an 18-of-26, 186-yard line for Siemian.
“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,” Kubiak said. “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.”
That end of the bargain for any Broncos quarterback this season is going to be pretty similar to what it was last season. Don’t do anything that makes it impossible for the defense to lead the team to victories. Throwing two picks and holding the ball too long on a fourth quarter sack that would look different if Graham Gano were more accurate made it close on that front, but Siemian moved the team several times and didn’t look overmatched by the task at hand.
If that’s the baseline for his performances, Siemian’s run as the starter should continue for a while.