Kyle Orton has moved on, but his luck playing in Denver hasn’t changed.
The former Broncos quarterback was back in town, leading the Bills, but similar to his work for Denver he came up short once again Sunday in a 24-17 loss.
Two of Orton’ passes were picked off in the red zone, devastating tunovers for a team with little margin of error. Throw in a fumble by wide receiver Sammy Watkins on the game’s first possession, and it was too much for the Bills to overcome. Denver never trailed.
“We just didn’t do enough to beat a good team,” said Orton, who completed 38 of 57 passes for 355 yards and a touchdown. “My performance wasn’t good enough to beat a good team. It’s frustrating whenever you lose, no matter how it happens. We’re frustrated.”
Bills coach Doug Marrone was as frustrated as his quarterback. Asked to rate Orton’s play resulted in a pause.
“Let’s see what he did,” Marone said while looking at the statistics.
“It’s the same situation, no matter what it is at the end of the day we all weren’t good enough to win.”
Orton lost his starting job in Denver, twice, to Tim Tebow.
Tebow first took over for the Broncos on Dec. 12, 2010, after the Broncos fell to 4-12. In 2011, Tebow again replaced Orton, and the Broncos made it to the playoffs.
“I just focused on the task at hand,” Orton said of his thoughts about playing back in Denver. “I knew we were going to be in for a battle. I knew we were going up against a good defense, so I pretty much spent all my time focusing on that. I have been quite a few places and this was a stop along the line.”
Wide receiver Marcus Thigpen said his team was too sloppy.
“We came out a little sluggish in the first half and we had some penalties and costly turnovers,” he said.
Irv Moss at imoss@denverpost.com
