Tim Tebow continues to defy the critics. And if ever there was a time for me to be happy to be wrong, this was it.
Number 15 was back to the winner’s circle after a three-game absence, with a 29-23 overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers to cap off wildcard weekend and send Denver to the second round to take on the New England Patriots.
Almost nobody thought that the Broncos could get the win here, but given my Steelers hatred and Tebow fanboy-ism, I was more than glad to be incorrect on this one .
I’m not going to go into any great detail about Tebow’s regular season, or the fact that he lost his last three games before the showdown with Pittsburgh. The Steelers allowed the fewest points on defence all year, and were the best team against the pass.
So what did Tebow do? He threw for his most ever yards in a game, 316, with a couple of touchdowns. (Kind of an appropriate number, given his public spirituality.)
Denver have been awful in the second quarter all year, so they came out and scored 20 points in the second quarter! Oh, and this was after only gaining eight yards in the first. You couldn’t make this up. Yes, the Steelers were missing a few guys through injury and Ben Roethlisberger’s ankle prevented him from extending plays with his running game like he normally does, but it doesn’t change how impressive the Broncos were.
Tebow was back to his efficient best; not turning the ball over at all after having interception and fumble problems in the last couple of weeks. There were a few times when it looked like Pittsburgh were going to storm home; Willis McGahee’s fourth quarter fumble, the blown refereeing call that ruled a lateral as an incomplete pass when it should have been called a fumble on Pittsburgh, and Champ Bailey’s interception attempt that he just failed to bring in with a couple of minutes to go, which led to Jericho Cotchery’s game tying touchdown.
So on to overtime they went, where Tebow broke a couple more records. When Ed Werder asked John Elway after the game how he felt about number 15 breaking Elway’s Bronco record for most yards in a playoff game, the Hall of Famer was ecstatic. It was also the shortest overtime game in the history of the NFL, playoff or otherwise.
The man who caught the ball, Demaryius Thomas, deserves his share of credit as well. Taken in the first round of the draft along with Tim Tebow in 2010, the second year man had four catches for 204 yards and of course, the game winning touchdown.
Ironically enough, the man that drafted them both when he was the head coach of Denver will be on the opposite sideline as an assistant coach for the Patriots, where he was resume his previous role as offensive coordinator in the 2012-13 season.
It’s been a crazy year for the most polarising figure in the NFL, and this victory when nobody believed in his team is just the latest twist in the tale.
It was also their first victory against a team with a winning record with Tebow at the helm. And now the bandwagon rolls on for at least another week…
So with this win, they travel to New England to take on a Patriots team that dismantled them a few weeks ago, and Tebow-mania is back in full swing.
Don’t you want to believe? I know I do.
Feel free to make fun of my rampant fanboyism on twitter (@TheMattBungard) where you can read all my ramblings about the NFL.
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