Top Ten Thoughts on a Great Season

Today we learned that we are not an elite team. The Patriots played like a number one seed is supposed to. They made adjustments, took away what we wanted to do and played offense as if they could not be stopped by anyone.

Here the top ten thoughts of a 33 year Bronco Fan:

Top Five Reflections:

1. When we were one and four and suffering with Ortonitis, no one thought we would make the playoffs or beat the defending AFC Champion Steelers. Every Bronco player and coach should be proud of being AFC West Champions and upseting the Steelers.

2. Tim Tebow is our franchise quarterback. I am so sick of the critics that hammer him relentlessly when Denver loses and then give him zero credit or make excuses when Denver wins. Today, he recieived little help from his offensive line or recievers. If we compare the difference between when New England goes five wide and when we do, we have a long way to go. New Engand learned a lot by playing us the first time and their defense played well all day. I am not sure what Denver learned on defense we looked bad in 7 of the 8 quarters we played against them.

3. We need to draft and build around Tebow. We need speed and depth at Reciever. The drops over the course of the season were killers. Hopefully, a full off season with Tebow as the starter and a full training camp will help us improve our offense dramatically. I would also draft another running back and solve our tight end issue. Either use Rosario, Fells or one of our other tight ends, or draft one that you can trust to get open and catch the ball.

4. Our Defense was above average but just not able to handle the elite offenses in the league. We need to solve our safety issue: Are Moore and Carter the Answer? or do we need to draft another safety or use free agency? We need more cornerbacks to be able to handle it when teams go five wide. We also need a new starting middle line backer and an impact player or two on the defensive line.

5. We need to understand that to be the best, you have to beat the best. Today, showed that despite a good season we are pretty far away from competing with the Patriots. May the off season let our players heal up, our coaching staff stay together and let the draft and free agency be good to us.

Top Five Frustrations

1. The inability of our defense to cover tight ends. Watching Aaron Hernandez run for nearly one hundred yards as the worlds tallest tailback was nauseating.

2. The lack of pressure from our defense. I think we hit Brady twice the whole day. Sitting in zone and being picked apart by Brady was like Dental surgery without Novocaine.

3. The lack of protection for Tebow. He faced a jail break of Patriots D lineman the whole game. He took over 20 hits and endured a pounding. Falling behind 42 to 7 didn't help our offensive execution either. Critics will hammer him, but if we had Aaron Rodgers we still would have been killed today.

4. The offensive play calling. Down 42 to 7 kicking field goals. Down 3 touchdowns and running dive play after dive play. Running option plays when they had been stopped by the Patriots the whole game. The lack of opening up the offense when it was still a game

5. The feeling of losing a big playoff game. Today, reminds me of the feeling back in 2005 when we lost to the Steelers and when we gave up 35 unanswered points to the Redskins in 1987.

Good Season Broncos! Let the Off season be Healing and Productive. See ya in September.