Broncos: Five Best and Most Exciting Games from 2011 Season

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Oct 4, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (88) catches a pass during the first half against the Minnesota Vikings at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports /

Denver Broncos 35 Minnesota Vikings 32

In terms of excitement, this game had it for nearly all game. A lot of back and forth between the two teams, which is part of what made it exciting. What hurt this games ranking is hat kept it close. Sloppy play.

Neither team exactly had a great day. Denver fumbled three times, losing two of them. On the other side, Minnesota’s quarterback threw three interceptions and the Vikings fumbled once, which Denver recovered. Turnovers are often a sure sign of sloppy play.

The quarterbacks for both teams put up great games, if you are just looking at their stats. Tim Tebow went 10-15 for 202 yards and two touchdowns. Christian Ponder, the Vikings quarterback at the time, went 29-47 for 381 yards three touchdowns and two interceptions.

If you watch the game over, you will see that neither quarterback played a very good game. It was sloppy play by opposing defenses that made their stats look better. With Tebow he had one receiver catch four passes for 144 of the yards he threw for. Most of those were yards after the catch.

What started the scoring was probably the least exciting score. Denver got pinned on their goal-line and tried to run. Instead the ball carrier got tackles in the endzone for a safety. After that, the back and forth went on and on.

Denver followed up by returning an interception for a touchdown and the Vikings kicked a field goal bringing the score up to 7-5 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was all Vikings as they scored 10 more points going up 15 to 7 at halftime.

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But, Tebow time was coming. Tebow made people across the country expect his late game rallies that happened consistently throughout the 2011 season. This started in the third quarter for the Broncos.

Tim Tebow threw a 21 yard pass to Demaryius Thomas for a touchdown, then after another Vikings touchdown, Tebow threw another pass to Thomas for another touchdown. This time it was a 41 yard play to score on the first play of the drive. This brought the score 22-21 at the end of three.

With just under ten minutes left in the game, the Vikings increased their lead 29-21 with a 48 yard touchdown reception by Percy Harvin. 52 seconds later Willis McGahee ran in from 21 yards out to give the Broncos another touchdown and bringing the game back within two points.

Denver went for the two point conversion after that touchdown. They went on the ground with Tebow, who managed to find his way into the endzone. Score 29 all.

Vikings answered with a field goal, going up by three with only 3:10 left in the game. Following drive Denver tied it all up with 1:38 left in the game. It was looking like overtime, unless something spectacular happened.

Well, something spectacular happened. After kicking the ball off to Minnesota, the Broncos intercepted the ball on the first play of the drive. This put Denver in place to win it all as they were not on the Vikings 15 yard line.

After five runs by from Denver, the clock was down to 2 seconds as Denver lined up for the field goal. The kick was up and was good. Denver wins in a very exciting game between two bad teams.

What hurt this game in the rankings was just the overall level of play from the Broncos. Heading into this game the Vikings were 2-9 and the Broncos 6-5 coming from four straight close wins. The game was expected to be close, but not down to the wire. Bad coverage and play overall by the Broncos kept the Vikings in it.

Sloppy play dropped them in the rankings when the excitement would have had them in the #2 spot.

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