Tim Vs Tom – Battle of the Golden Boys
In a week that had an undefeated team seeking perfection, a winless team trying to avoid the ultimate embarrassment, a premier AFC match up between the underappreciated Ravens and underachieving Chargers that’s topped off with a defensive assault between the 49ers and Steelers, all the talk this week has been about one thing – Tebow.
Tebow was on a six game winning streak which included three overtime wins and many, many miracle plays from him and, almost as many inexcusable mistakes from his opponents. Through nine starts Tebow has seven wins. You can’t argue with wins. You also can’t argue with stats. Not counting this game Tebow had a 38% completion rate, was averaging 4.7 yards a passing attempt and, through eight starts, six touchdowns; five in the air, one on the ground. Fine, those stats are his through three quarters, but as the top teams continually show – you need to play for more than one quarter to beat the elites. What were Tebow’s stats yesterday through three quarters? Six for ten passing, eighty-four yards and no touchdowns. At this point the Broncos were down by eighteen points. No chance for Tebow-time this week.
Saying that, strangely, the Broncos started fast and early. Denver’s fans are used to a late surge (Tebow had four straight fourth-quarter comebacks coming into this game). After one quarter the Broncos were up 13 – 7, scoring on three straight possessions. They had outgained the Pats one hundred and sixty-seven rushing yards to a measly four. They were on pace for over six hundred yards on the ground (and watching the way Ball and McGahee were rolling, no one thought that would be impossible). What did the Pats do the Broncos couldn’t? They played Consistently for four quarters and they took advantage of Bronco mistakes.
The other quarterback in this match up (it’s not often you can say that about Tom Brady) in all fairness gave Tebow a masterclass in how you play the position. At one moment on the broadcast they put a graphic of Brady throwing a controlled dart side-by-side with Tebows outlandish ineffective throwing method. The commentators seemed impressed, while all I saw was Tebow’s wild body swing, leg rotation and inability to power the ball. While Brady made composed throw after throw after throw (every quarter) Tebow had a flash or two throwing nice comebacks and out routes once or twice.
This game in a nutshell was fun. It was great to watch. The Broncos darted out early showing why the Patriots defence is ranked 32nd in the NFL. New England then showed why they were 10 and 3 and now, after this game, have eleven wins, six in a row, none in overtime and won every game with a winning margin of seven or more.
On twitter today the Tebow tweets were silent. What just passed was probably (in my opinion) personally his best performance, and yet the Tebow maniacs are quiet. He overthrew people but made a throw or two I didn’t think he could make. Are the Tebow zealots just realising what every other sane football fan already knew? This Bronco team, if it makes the playoffs, will just be one and done any year it makes it while Tebow is QB. You cannot win a game versus the best teams in this league with such shoddy play from the QB position for over half the match.
It only seems fitting that in a Tim Tebow featuring game review I haven’t mentioned anything else about the game, not even the final score.
41 – 23 – Pats over Broncos.
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