Return of the Neckbeard

Kyle Orton celebrated his re-bearding with a victory over the Cowboys on Sunday. Kyle has yet to throw an interception this season and his Broncos have improved to 4-0.

The bad news, his Prius doesn't get as good of gas mileage in the mountains of Denver as it did in the plains of Illinois.

It is difficult to understand the cosmic abilities of Orton. He gets drafted to a team that in 2005 had one of the best defenses in recent memory and gets thrown into the starting job due to injury and wins 10 games without being any good. He lead the league in drunk party pictures floating around the internet and poorly thrown deep balls.

Then in 2008 he "won" the starting job from a quarterback who shall not be named here but to say that he believed that throwing blindly off his back foot was always a good decision, and that wearing a backwards ball cap on the sideline with a look that says 'I don't care that I just threw my third interception of the day' is always cool.

Orton showed himself to be a serviceable, but not great quarterback in 2008, and lead the Bears to a respectable 9-7 record. Then he gets traded to the Broncos for their franchise quarterback in a situation that seemed set up for failure.

In 2008, the Broncos had the 30th ranked defense, in terms of points allowed. They went 8-8 with Jay Cutler, a far superior quarterback to Orton. Then they sign first-year head coach Josh McDaniel, who shakes everything up, resulting in the trade of Cutler, and star receiver Brandon Marshall demanding to be traded.

But somehow, through the power of Orton, the Broncos defense has become one of the best in the league and Captain Neckbeard has been able to manage the game and win. You can call it luck, you can call it skill, you can call it beard. Whatever it is Orton has it and the Broncos also have it. They have another big test next week when they face the Patriots.