The Broncos were smothered by the Patriots in their Divisional Playoff matchup. (Stephan Savoia - AP)

Thoughts on the blowout loss to the New England Patriots in Foxborough (In no particular order):

• Before I get into the game, I have to say that this season was an outright blast. I haven’t had this much fun watching the Denver Broncos since the 1998 campaign. With all the ups and downs, and considering where they ended up compared to where they started, it was a season I will remember for a very long time. The playoff victory over the Steelers is a game that will be replayed forever and was obviously the highlight of an improbable year. Despite the fact the Broncos didn’t even compete in the big loss to the Patriots on Saturday, the 2011 season was a huge success for this franchise. Denver proved they are good enough to compete with most teams in the league and win the AFC West Championship, but it is very evident that they still have a lot of work to do in order to beat the elite teams. The talent gap between the Broncos and the best clubs out there is still too large, but I have the utmost faith in John Elway and I believe this is a team moving in the right direction.
• With all the positive things that Denver accomplished this year, it was disappointing to watch them go down without putting up a fight against the Patriots. The Broncos got outplayed in all phases of the game and they were outcoached on both sides of the ball. I don’t think we have to worry about the assistant coaches getting hired away anymore; their performances on Saturday were embarrassing. Mike McCoy reverted back to his uninventive and uninspiring self. It goes without saying that the Broncos had to abandon what they wanted to do early because the score got out of hand quickly, but there was once again no creativity in the play calling. There were several instances where Denver ran the same play twice in a row with no success, and they also stayed in a very conservative mode when it had become laughable to do so. The offense isn’t going to win any awards for their effort, but the defense actually made them look pretty decent. Dennis Allen’s crew absolutely no showed in the biggest game of the year and they gave up a staggering 509 total yards. They allowed the New England tight ends to torch them more than they did during the regular season matchup and that is quite an accomplishment. At the end of the day, the Broncos got beat on all fronts by a much better team.

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