Rest in peace, 2010 Broncos.
Dead last. 4th of 4. In the basement. Cooked. Done. Stick a fork in ’em. The 2010 Broncos are history.
Let’s be honest. Nobody really gave the Broncos any chance in San Diego. Facing a home team coming off the bye is never easy – especially not for the 2010 Broncos. Vegas had the Chargers as a 9 point favorite going into tonight’s prime-time Monday Night Football game. San Diego more than covered. They decimated the Broncos 35-14.
A big home win against Kansas City in week 10 gave us all a glimmer of hope. Week 11 was a snuff film. The Chargers absolutely crushed the Broncos along with any optimism the fan base was holding onto. Snyder was right. We’ll be lucky if the Broncos win 5 games this season.
The big question left to be answered is this: will Josh McDaniels survive? Our speculation is that he will. As Cecil Lammey points out, the team won’t pay three coaches. Josh McDaniels and Mike Shanahan will be both on the books in 2011. Regardless of how poorly the team performs, McD will get one more shot. Last week’s win assured us of that.
Will Kyle Orton remain the quarterback? That’s question number two.
>Folks are speculating that McDaniels will be forced to roll Tim Tebow out with the Broncos hopes for a playoff berth dashed. This despite the fact that the Broncs signed veteran Kyle Orton to an extension in the pre-season. Let’s hope not. Tebow may be a great NFL leading man someday but now is not the time. Let’s hope that, for his sake, McD allows Timmy to develop in the backup role.
We need look no further than San Diego to see why letting the future franchise quarterback remain an understudy for a few years pays dividends. Philip Rivers remained stashed behind Drew Brees right up until the time the Chargers felt comfortable trading Brees away. Now both are MVP candidates.
There are no MVP candidates in Denver.
Rest in peace, Broncos.
>As of 10:00 PM on Monday, November 22, 2010, the season is over.
Had the Broncos managed to win tonight they could have moved to within two games of the division-leading Kansas City Chiefs. Instead they allowed the Chargers to move to within one. Rest assured that fans of the Raiders and the Chiefs were voting Broncos tonight.
San Diego can now be considered the favorite to win the AFC West. That means a playoff berth; probably the only one for a team in this division.
