Lammey: Broncos QB Siemian’s performance vs. Saints ‘courageous’

The Denver Broncos 25-23 win Sunday in New Orleans left the team 7-3 heading into a much-needed bye week but also a bit battered and bruised.

Aside from missing some starters Sunday (Aqib Talib, Derek Wolfe), a relentless Saints defensive pass rushing attack left quarterback Trevor Siemian “sore,” head coach Gary Kubiak said Monday.

“He’s beat up. He took a lot of shots. Some of them he has to take responsibility for. We have to make sure that he’s stepping up in the pocket and doing those types of things, but he’s sore,” Kubiak said.

“We laid it on the line — everybody did. We played extremely hard as a football team (and had) a lot of great-effort plays. Like I said, he’s just one of the sore guys.”

And filling in for Sandy Clough Monday, Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan’s Broncos Insider Cecil Lammey agreed with Kubiak, saying there’s only one way to describe Siemian’s gutsy effort.

“There’s one word to describe Trevor Siemian’s performance against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10, and that word is, for me, courageous,” Lammey said.

Normally, Lammey said, teams game plan Siemian without a lot of pressure, instead of sitting back and letting the second-year quarterback check down to passes that won’t beat them.

“We saw the Saints take a different approach and just blitz him all day long. And Trevor Siemian, even when he was getting rid of the ball, he was still getting hit,” Lammey said.

“He was still getting knocked to the ground. He was still getting pressure. He was under duress seemingly half of the time he was out there.”

During the game, Siemian was sacked six times and hit another five. According to Pro Football Focus, the Saints dialed up an extra defender to rush Siemian 22 times out of 48 plays.

And no, Siemian’s performance — 25-of-40 for 258 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions — wasn’t perfect, Lammey said, but it good enough to quash speculation of a bye week quarterback change.

“Was he perfect? No, far from it. He’s a flawed quarterback. He’s an average quarterback. But his toughness is above average,” Lammey said, “and he’s been voted captain by this team. You’re not making a QB switch. All that talk is put to bed.”

Kubiak said Siemian received an injection in his shoulder after the game and that bye-week “rest will do him some good.”

Siemian injured his non-throwing shoulder in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4, causing him to miss a Week 5 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.