And the season ends with our Broncos having a 4 - 12 record.  We lost again to the chargers at home.  At least it wasn't by 30 + this time though!  I'll take the small victories where I can get them...we got a great draft position out of the loss.  I sure would have preferred one of those hail mary's to hit though!  My final game review comes after the jump:

Coaching

• The team wanted to win this game...I saw it from them and they never gave up even when being down by a lot of points.  That is good coaching to me...+1 Studesville for keeping their heads in the game.
• Offense:  Ups and downs a lot...I didn't like one of the 4th down Tebow draw plays, but the rest of the game I thought was called very well, we just didn't execute until late in the game.  Chime in below if you have a good opinion of why that is...what is missing early that we haven't been scoring points???
• Defense:  I actually thought Wink did a solid job this week.  He was aggressive with his defense and we got Rivers pressured quite well...I don't think the play calls were the cause of our woes this week...it was our execution yet again.  This is where I do think the coaches take a hit though...we've seen poor tackling all season...Wink didn't seem to do much to solve this.
• Special Teams:  We were ready to play and executed well in this phase.  Our coverage unit did a little poorly, but I credit that to Sproles more than I ding us for it...he's a very excellent returner.

Offense

• Let's start with the biggest problem to me...Tebow's accuracy.  Out of many games I've watched him play, Tebow's accuracy tanked in this one.  He overthrew many sideline routes and was NOT sharp in getting the ball to the chest or in front of his short routes (screens, RB flats, etc).  The good thing is that if he's our starter next year, he can get better.
  • Next problem:  Decision making.  Tebow's two picks were just awful epic failures.  Both routes were double covered and there was no reason that Tebow shouldn't have seen it.  You just can't throw those passes in the NFL and expect to stay on the field long-term.  Without more of a sample of play than 3 full games, I don't know if this is fixable or not.  I would think so, but the last thing Tebow needs to be is a "gunslinger" like Favre or Cutler.  He's a great weapon in and of himself running...just throw the ball away or look for your outlet dude!
  • Now on to some positives about Tebow:  Great heart was shown on the field of play.  I absolutely LOVE how he led the offense at the end of the game.  He was cool, he was poised, and he NEVER gave up.  I sure do like that in a QB and I'm not opposed at all to seeing him on the field next year.  I agree with the sentiment that Tebow is a winner...even in a loss he looked like a winner to me.
• O-Line:  Poor play in both phases (pass protection and run blocking).  Tebow covered up for their pass protection with his legs, but there were several plays where if Orton was on the field, he would have ate grass hard.  I did notice a few plays where Tebow held the ball too long as well, so maybe it wasn't all a pile of dookie... The run game though was poorly blocked.  We have no Barry Sanders in our backfield...our RBs need some flipping holes to run through already!!!
• WRs:  They had a hard hard time getting open for Tebow and I think credit there goes to San Diego's secondary.  There were a few different times where we got to see wider angles of the plays and the San Diego defense was on our guys like wet blankets slapped over them with tar.
• Where are you Eddie Royal???   I still think he is being severely under-used.
• Some people hate on Moreno, but with no holes that guy still demanded every inch of field position he could get when he ran the ball.  I love me some Moreno and would like to see what he could do with a full season behind an O-line that can get him some room to run.

Special Teams

• I absolutely loved the execution on Special Teams in this game...we didn't let Sproles return one for a TD (and it almost happened twice), we scored a TD, and we executed an onside kick.  On a team with an actual defense, this performance alone should have guaranteed us a win.
• The onside kick was text-book beautiful...it twirled quickly, arched very high, and had superb hang-time giving our guys time to get to it.  Every kicker should call up Hauchska (however his name is spelled) and ask for pointers.
• I think Cassius Vaughn should almost be guaranteed a spot on the team next year.  He was superb running back the return and should get a shot at it full time for next season...
• The play call for the fake punt with Tebow in the backfield was just Awesome!  It would have gotten us a first down easy if Norv hadn't taken the time out...the return team were just lost when we lined up like that!

I'll do another one of these later this week or next about the overall season and my personal off-season overview.   Go Broncos Forever!