Well, the Broncos made it to the playoffs. But Las Vegas casinos don't think they will get past the Steelers, much less win the Super Bowl. Vegas sportsbook Bovada gives the Denver home game to Pittsburgh by nine-points.
But it gets worse for the blue and orange crew -- The Denver Post reports that oddsmakers at Cantor Gaming give the Broncos 120-1 odds at actually going all the way to winning the NFL title. Ouch.
For Tebow, it is looking like an uphill battle. He's gone from a seven-straight winning streak as a starter to three crushing losses to end the season. And an especially sore loss to the Chiefs led by Broncos former quarterback Kyle Orton. The Broncos still limped into the post-season thanks to the Raiders loss to the Chargers and the Broncos holding the AFC West tie-breaker, but the losing streak has some asking: is Tebow Time really gone? BroncoTalk thinks not -- sure, the late game heroics have vanished in the last few games, but overcoming uphill battles is how Tebowmania came to be.
Analysts are hitting Tebow hard too. Jon Friedman at MarketWatch has declared Tebowmania dead, and Bleacher Report says Tebow is not the long term option the Broncos are looking for. Tim Hasselbeck at ESPN's Countdown Daily thinks that the Broncos chances against the Steelers aren't all that bad, but he still picks the Steelers.
Despite it all, Elway remains optimistic and excited to just be back in the playoffs. The Denver Broncos Twitter feed tweeted this from the Executive VP yesterday:
Elway also offered up some sage advice to Tebow in his first NFL playoffs game: "The key thing for (Tebow) is to go out, put everything behind him, go through his progressions and pull the trigger," according to The Denver Post's Woody Paige.
And the one player that many fans will be watching, Tim Tebow himself, is not giving up. He was quoted at a press conference Wednesday by the Denver Broncos Twitter feed as saying: