Minnesota Vikings: 5 Keys in Loss to Denver Broncos

While the Minnesota Vikings fall to 2-10, its very hard to find optimism amid the plethora of injuries, mistakes and incompetent players that populate a good majority of this team.

Don't get me wrong, guys like Jared Allen, Percy Harvin and Chad Greenway are just as reliable as ever, but with essentially the entire starting defensive secondary and many of the backups on IR, nothing good could've come of this game.

Tim Tebow, who is not very strong as a passing QB, dissected the Vikings secondary like he was playing a game of Madden. That's not all that hard, considering the Vikings corners would give his receivers a 10-15 yard cushion with which to make passes.

Though this game seemed so close, the overall effort and perseverance of this team was not where it needed to be to win this game. Because of that, "Tebowmania" was allowed to strike again in Minnesota.

Here are the five things that most contributed to the Vikings' loss to the Denver Broncos.

Secondary

As previously stated, the play of the Vikings secondary was just plain embarrassing.

Decimated by injury, this corps of players allowed a weak Denver passing attack to have one of its best outings of the season.

Broncos QB Tim Tebow was allowed to throw for a career-best 202 yards with a completion percentage of 66.7.

Considering how much of a run-first QB Tebow is, he sure looked like a precision passer against the Vikings.

With rookies Mistral Raymond starting at free safety and Brandon Burton starting at CB, the miscommunication in this group of guys was very evident. It seemed that the corners were expecting safety help that clearly wasn't coming.

Even coach Leslie Frazier recognized how unacceptable his secondary looked.

Its hard to foresee this unit getting much better with Antoine Winfield, Husain Abdullah and Chris Cook all done for the year.

With the possible return of Asher Allen next week, they may get a much-needed boost, but I don't see them stopping Megatron and the Detroit Lions, who will be ready to take out some frustration.

Things look pretty dismal in the Vikings secondary. The most deflating aspect of that issue is that they will likely have to deal with it for the rest of the season.

Sloppy Tackling

Along with the abysmal Vikings secondary, the form-tackling of the entire Minnesota Vikings defense was pitiful.

The Vikings allowed just about any ball-carrier to break tackles for extra yards—and a few for touchdowns.

The inability to bring down RB Willis McGahee and QB Tim Tebow allowed the Broncos to extend key drives in the second half and march down the field to win the game.

The defense started the game off well, forcing three-and-outs on the first five consecutive drives. When the Broncos possessed the ball in the second half, however, it was a different story.

Not only was Tebow allowed to stand upright in the pocket for far too long, bad tackling allowed him to extend plays and break tackles before finding open receivers—who would also break tackles for more yards.

Tebow looked very Ben Roethlisberger-like with the way he moved around in and out of the pocket.

Despite being contained by the Vikings defense from a rushing perspective, sloppy play by Minnesota sure made things look easy for Tebow.

Ponder's Rookie Mistakes

Christian Ponder had, statistically, a pretty impressive day.

He broke the Vikings' record for most passing yards in a game by a rookie with 381 yards.

To that, Ponder added three passing touchdowns and a few key rushes that extended drives for the Vikings.

Ponder's ability to hook up with many different receivers in the game made him look very impressive and flashed the potential that the young signal-caller possesses.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Ponder's performance was the fact that he was playing with an injured hip on his planting side.

Along with the many nice things we can say about Ponder, the rookie had a lot to do with why the Vikings lost the ball game.

Ponder fumbled a ball early in the game that was recovered by the Broncos and eventually led to an early go-ahead score for Denver. He also threw two interceptions—one on the last drive of the game that resulted in the game-sealing field goal for the Broncos with no time left on the clock.

Ponder made some impressive plays, but when the rookie made his mistakes, they were bad mistakes. When you turn the ball over three times and they all go for scoring drives, you have a lot to do with why your team lost the game.

His faulty decision-making ended up being the ultimate dagger in this game, even if he had a pretty statistically impressive game.

Bad Offensive Line Play

There are a lot of college defenses that could penetrate on this Vikings offensive line—well, at least the one that we saw early in the game.

Christian Ponder spent more time getting smashed into the turf than he did making passes, and a lot of that is on this line.

Denver's defense is a very impressive unit, don't get me wrong—but the way this line played, I'm surprised Ponder didn't get seriously injured.

Ponder was sacked a pretty average three times, but when he was sacked, they were such bone-crushing hits that one could feel them over the radio.

By the second half, the line seemed to have gotten it together, but the damage, to an extent, was already done.

The Vikings weren't out of the game, but Denver had a clear advantage in confidence. With Ponder playing hurt, the Broncos had the upper hand by the end of the first half, and Ponder was becoming more and more desperate to make plays.

The run game saw a clear improvement, but it just wasn't enough to hold off an explosive Denver defense.

This offensive line needs to be addressed before someone gets hurt—namely the future of this franchise.

If this continues to be an issue, heads will roll in Minnesota.

Inability to Close out the Game

All of the aforementioned keys can be combined together to essentially say that this group of players just couldn't get it together enough to win a game that they certainly should have.

Players like Percy Harvin, Chad Greenway and Jared Allen continue to play at an extremely high level, but the rest of this team just can't string it together for four consecutive quarters of football.

For a while, the Vikings went pound-for-pound, punch-for-punch with a "hot" Denver squad.

With the exceptions of a few very ugly games, this team hasn't been blown out very often this season. With a few key changes, this team could definitely compete for a playoff spot.

Until those changes can be made, the Vikings better get comfortable at the basement of the NFC North as the embarrassing string of losses has them heading toward their worst season in franchise history.

The Vikings were very much in this game, even into the last minute of play.

The inability to close out a team that really isn't all it's cracked up to be, however, was far and away the most deflating key in this loss to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.

Thanks for reading.