"I was surprised in the fact that people took it to be a negative answer and it really wasn't a negative answer," Elway said. "That's where I was taken aback. It wasn't meant to be a strike at Timmy at all.
"It was just a reality check of where we were at the time, and it wasn't a negative because I tried to follow it up with all the positive things we were doing and tried to point out some things we needed to get better at."
Elway blames the poor communication on his part.
"I was disappointed, and obviously I need to do a better job communicating that message, because the way it was taken was taken more negative than obviously I really meant it to be," Elway said. "So that's just one of those situations, and it's something I'll learn from also."
Tebow has been doing well lately. He improved much more during Sunday's game against San Diego, completing a comeback to lead Denver 16-13 in overtime.
The Broncos are now 6-5, one game behind the Raiders in the AFC West division.
