It has to be one of the craziest, most unique, and unexplainable phenomenons I have ever seen in sports. What Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is doing has taken the sports world by storm, and it doesn’t look like it plans on letting up. Never before have we spent so much time talking about an NFL quarterback completing 45 percent of his passes.
It’s impossible to flip to any sports channel on your television these days without hearing about the man known for “Tebowing.” You can’t tune to any sports radio program without listening to the host argue with callers about whether or not the magic can be sustained. The man is everywhere.
Just like everyone else, I don’t know if this will last forever, but I sure hope it does. The Broncos will square off against the 2-9 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday and it will likely be one of the most talked about and most watched games of the week. Forget the 11-0 Packers pursuing perfection. Forget the “dreamteam” Eagles desperately trying to climb their way out of the toilet. Forget the pivotal AFC North matchup between the Steelers and Bengals for first place, I’m not interested. Give me more Tebow.
Is Tebow’s throwing motion jacked up? You bet. Is his completion percentage laughable? Absolutely. The one thing that simply cannot be denied, however, is that Timothy Richard Tebow knows how to win football games.
As a two year starter at the University of Florida, his career record was 35-6 and won a National Championship. He lost a total of two games in his last two years.
When he entered the draft, almost nobody believed in him. His throwing motion was too long, he couldn’t take a snap from under center, and his pocket presence was non-existent. Without Urban Meyer, this guy is nothing, right? Not so fast.
Since Tebow took over for Kyle Orton and the 1-4 Broncos in week seven of the NFL season, all he’s done is go 5-1 and move Denver into playoff contention in the lousy AFC West. It’s not always pretty, but somehow, someway, he finds a way to win. Last time I checked, that’s what John Elway is paying him to do, and he’s doing it.
Unlike Lebron James, Tim Tebow knows how to play when it matters most. It’s scary how similar each one of his games seems to be. For the first 45, 50, or even 55 minutes, it’s not always pretty. It’s not at all uncommon to see him miss an open receiver, throw a pass a yard behind or in front of his target, or throw one right into the turf. The offense he leads looks stagnant for the majority of the game. But when it’s “go time,” he turns into a man possessed.
Against Miami, he orchestrated scoring drives of 80 and 56 yards in the final minutes and ran in a two-point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime. He also led the drive that set up the game-winning field goal.
Two weeks later, the Broncos decided to run a college offense, one very similar to what Tebow ran at Florida. Just when you think you’ve seen it all in the NFL, someone starts running the option-read , and it worked. Tebow ran for 118 yards on 12 carries while running back Willis McGahee ran for 163 and two scores on 20 attempts to get the victory.
This party had only just begun. Continuing with their option-read attack, Tebow threw the ball only eight times against the Chiefs and completed two of them. Not that it mattered, because one of those completions came late in the fourth quarter, a 56-yarder to Eric Decker to win the game.
A week later, Tebow had to face the New York Jets and their vaunted defense with only four days to prepare. Surely, this charade was over with, right? Wrong. Struggling to move the football all night, Tebow and the Broncos took over at their own 5-yard line with under six minutes to play and trailing 13-10. He guided his Broncos down to the Jets 20 with just over a minute left. Facing an all-out blitz from the Jets defense, Tebow picked it up, pulled it down, ran past a safety, made a cut, and found his way into the endzone for a 20-yard TD run. He did it again.
Last week, in San Diego, the Florida-style offense once again prevailed. Using the option-read, Tebow and McGahee combined to rush for 184 yards. A missed field goal by the Chargers took this one into OT. Matt Prater made his for Denver on their third possession of overtime, giving the fighting Tebows yet another win.
When it comes to Tebow, there is no middle ground. Either you love and appreciate what he’s doing, or if you’re like ESPN analyst Merril Hoge, you find every way possible to rip the kid.
Instead of focusing on what he does wrong, can we focus on what he does right? He is 5-1 since taking over and 4-0 on the road. Tebow has 11 total touchdowns (8 passing, 3 rushing) against just one interception. In that six game span, Phil Rivers is 0-6 with 10 interceptions.
It’s so easy to cheer for this guy. Maybe it’s the fact that so many people try to tear him down, his willingness to thank God every chance he gets, his million-dollar smile, his knack for performing in the clutch, or squeaky-clean image (he once had his name removed from a Playboy All-American list because it was too racy for his Christian beliefs). Whatever the reason, I, like so many others, keep finding myself saying, “When do the Broncos play?”
I don’t know how much longer this will last, but I plan on enjoying every last second.
No comments:
Post a Comment