Denver Broncos, Not Tim Tebow to Blame for 45-10 Loss to New England Patriots

When the dust settles on tonight's game in New England, plenty of people will talk about how Tim Tebow didn't do enough to keep the Denver Broncos competitive in their 45-10 shellacking at the hands of the New England Patriots.

At first glance, they might be right. Tebow continued his disconcerting practice of completing only a fraction of his passes, and only rarely looked the part of an NFL quarterback.

But of all the things that went wrong in New England tonight, Tebow's play should be the smallest concern for John Elway and the rest of the Broncos' front office. Denver's offense and defense alike failed to even board the plane; they must have stayed with injured Eric Decker and watched the game at home.

The Patriots consistently harried and harassed Tebow in the pocket. Despite New England fielding one of the softer defensive squads this year, they played like a team full of All-Pros against the Broncos. Rob Ninkovich and Shaun Ellis tormented Tebow relentlessly; Tebow often had a meager two seconds or less before feeling pressure. A couple times the Patriots already had their sack two seconds into the play.

All told, the Patriots sacked Tebow six times in the game, with 15 plays run for negative yardage.

Denver receivers didn't help matters. Their wide-outs regularly dropped passes throughout the regular season and didn't break form tonight, either. Tebow deserves some of the credit for his incomplete passes, but plenty of times he did his part in getting the ball to his receivers. When the ball hits your target's hands, the expectation is that they'll catch the ball; that didn't happen for the Broncos.

On the other side of the ball, Denver's defense lacked the punch that carried them through the season. The Broncos failed to pressure Tom Brady, electing instead to drop into coverage. Brady picked apart the secondary, scoring a record six times through the air.

Not that it made much difference to the score, but Von Miller's late hit that sparked a sideline brawl near the end of the game did nothing to help matters.

Denver has a ways to go before they become a complete threat in the playoffs. But before the Tebow haters start calling for a new quarterback they should take a close look at tonight's game. The result would have been the same regardless of who lined up behind center.