GREEN BAY, Wis.—Even with the game well out of hand, it wasn’t Tim Tebow time for the Denver Broncos.
Not yet, anyway.
While some fans in Denver would like to see more of the Broncos’ backup quarterback, coach John Fox stuck with starter Kyle Orton for nearly all of the Broncos’ ugly 49-23 loss at Green Bay on Sunday.
“I thought our offense was very impressive, other than the turnovers,” Fox said. “It wasn’t all the quarterback. It was all of us.”
Eric Decker caught a pair of touchdowns from Orton for the Broncos (1-3). Orton threw for 273 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Tebow made a brief and uneventful appearance for the Broncos in the first quarter, rushing once for minus-1 yard. Fox chose not to give Tebow extra work when the game got out of control in the fourth quarter.
“Well, that and we did it once and it lost yardage,” Fox said. “That wasn’t all on him by any stretch. It didn’t prove to be real beneficial, so we went a different direction. I thought all in all we moved the ball pretty effectively. We just didn’t score as many points as we needed to.”
They weren’t good enough on defense, either.
Aaron Rodgers threw for a career-high 408 yards, tied a personal best with four touchdown passes and ran for two more scores for the Packers (4-0).
Rodgers’ 408 yards passing was a regular-season career high; he threw for 423 yards in the Packers’ playoff loss to Arizona in January 2010. Rodgers was replaced by backup Matt Flynn late in the fourth quarter.
“I knew they were a great offense,” safety Rahim Moore said. “They are even better (than he thought). After the Super Bowl, some teams fall off. They aren’t falling off.”
Packers veteran wide receiver Donald Driver left in the second quarter with an apparent left knee injury, but returned in the second half—then caught a touchdown from Rodgers in the fourth quarter.
The Packers took a 21-3 lead on Rodgers’ 11-yard touchdown scramble early in the second quarter, but the Broncos briefly got back in the game as Orton threw a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to Decker.
“I thought we did a great job in the second quarter to fight back and get a couple touchdowns and make a game of it there going into halftime,” Orton said. “We really came out and didn’t do a lot in the second half. We knew we were going to have to score points and limit the turnovers. We had one interception that led to a touchdown and a fumble on the 1, so those are big plays for us.”
Rodgers then shut the door just before halftime, throwing a 17-yard touchdown to Greg Jennings with 24 seconds left in the second quarter. The Packers took a 28-17 lead.
Driver got a big cheer from the crowd when he jogged out of the tunnel to start the second half, and the Packers went back to work.
Rodgers converted a third-and-13 situation with an 18-yard completion to James Jones, then went on to march the Packers to the Denver 8-yard line. Rodgers took off running and was tackled as he stretched the ball to the goal line, where officials ruled him just short.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy called for a replay review, and the play was ruled a touchdown. Green Bay took a 35-17 lead with 8:26 left in the third quarter.
Orton put together another drive as the Broncos tried to keep up, and appeared to find tight end Daniel Fells for a long gain near the goal line. But Fells fumbled the ball and Packers safety Morgan Burnett recovered, giving the ball back to the Packers.
Moore had a hard time looking at the scoreboard at the end.
“I didn’t feel good,” Moore said. “I will tell you that.”
Notes: With new NFL security measures in place, fans had trouble getting into Lambeau Field in time for kickoff. With 10 minutes left before the start, several lines of fans waiting to get in stretched deep into the parking lot. The lines had dissipated early in the first quarter. … Fells left the field with a knee injury in the first quarter, but was able to return. … Von Miller had two sacks for the Broncos.
