+ A portion of Bronco fans have tired of quarterback Kyle Orton, going so far as to possibly collect $10,000 in the hope to purchase space for two billboards in downtown Denver. The message will generically state that they're finished with Kyle Orton, demanding the new Tim Tebow era. Jesse Oaks who is leading the effort, is actually a resident of Independence Kentucky, says:
"We used to be a team that if we weren’t in the Super Bowl hunt, it was a losing season. It just feels like we’re a team that’s settling for mediocrity," Oaks said.
As a Bengals fan all we have to say is thank god we've avoided these controversies for some time now. Even when Jon Kitna remained the starting quarterback during Carson Palmer's rookie season, there were no doubts about whom the quarterback was. Granted the Bengals won two games in 2002 and enjoyed a six-game improvement with a rookie head coach the following year eliminating any engineered demands for Palmer. And granted, since then until several months ago, Carson Palmer has been the starting quarterback; there has been no doubts about that. The first chance that the Bengals could have faced their first quarterback controversy in ages, the team firmly settled on Andy Dalton early in the process, as opposed to an experienced veteran, quieting any chance for controversy.
That being said, Kyle Orton will start against the Bengals and you have to imagine at this point, he's looking at Sunday's game as a do-or-die scenario. Is there a quarterback in this league that needs a week two win more than Orton?
In two starts against the Cincinnati Bengals, Orton is 1-1 -- including the the tipped pass during the 2009 regular season opener for Brandon Stokley. Completing 38 of 67 passes for 392 yards passing, a touchdown and five interceptions, Orton has a passer rating against the Bengals of 42.6.