Well, thanks to some soreness in the arm of Kyle Orton, the millions of Tebowites in Denver finally got their wish. Tim Tebow had his first start of his NFL career today against the Oakland Raiders in a 39-23 loss. Now, let's break down Tebow's performance.
Well, early on, things weren't looking so good, until Tebow had a huge break of 40 yards, on a 3rd and 23, for a touchdown. Immediately, I could hear all of Denver explode in a huge roar!! The savior is here!! Why didn't we do this earlier?! Orton could never do that!! It's all Tebow!! Well, slow down folks. First, this was a designed QB draw that isn't meant to get more than 5 yards. The effectiveness of the play didn't come from Tebow going Michael Vick on everybody and making tons of people miss. The play worked because the Raiders didn't expect it. They dropped back in a soft zone, rushed 3, and before anybody realized it, Tebow had the first down. Was it a sweet run? Sure! But don't get so excited quite yet. That play was much more the Raiders being shocked than Tebow being awesome. That should be evidenced by the fact that that same style Tebow Draw play was run several more times throughout the game, each of the rest of them not for more than 5-9 yards.
Next, Tebow and the Broncos took the lead in the first when Tebow floated a pass that Brandon Lloyd snatched out of nowhere for a touchdown. It was initially ruled incomplete, but was reversed after coach Studley, I mean Studesville, challenged the play. Once again, I hear the explosions of the Bronco faithful. They said Tebow can't pass! What a perfect throw! You see how that just fit right in! Orton can't make that throw! Once again folks, slow down. Look at the play again. Tebow underthrew the ball into double coverage. One Oakland cornerback had it go straight through his hands, and Lloyd made one hell of a catch. Again, this had far less to do with Tebow than it did with the Broncos being fortunate the Raiders corner was too propelled by his momentum to react fully and make the catch; and still required that Lloyd make one hell of a catch, keeping his eyes fixed on that ball through several arms.
The rest of the Broncos points all came from field goals. Tebow finished the game 8-16 for 138 yards, 1 TD. 8 rushes for 78 yards, and 1 TD. Yet, one review of the game that I saw was that Tebow "shined" in his first game. Umm, if by shined you mean didn't completely and totally give the game away, then sure. Don't get me wrong, I like Tim Tebow. Good kid who loves to compete that has won everywhere he's ever been. It's never bad to have a guy like that around, but let's slow down here folks. This was barely even a full start. He was not put in there to go and win the game, he was put in there to not lose the game. He threw the ball 16 times. Kyle Orton has 498 attempts in 13 games. Do the math. That comes out to 38.3 pass attempts a game. Tebow didn't even have half of that. I don't even remember the last time the Broncos had a QB only complete 8 passes in a game, and that is shining? No, no, no, no, no folks. Tebow did not shine. What he did was go out and not suck. Now, I do realize that, given the latest incarnation of our beloved Broncos, not sucking looks a whole lot like being awesome, but we need to call it what it is. The coaching staff did not want to put this game, or this team, on Tim Tebow's shoulders, so they didn't.
So before I hear another crazed, disillusioned Bronco fan say that Tebow needs to start right here and right now, please look at this game and take this simple fact away from it. Tim Tebow is not ready to be an NFL starter. And if people have learned anything from starting players before they were ready, it is this; if you put a player in that position, especially the QB position where the whole game depends on you, they will crumble. They will crumble in that season, and they will crumble beyond. Allow Tebow to develop. He showed some good things. But he mostly showed that he isn't a threat to throw the ball, and that his coaching staff did not trust him to do so. Back off on Tebow Time, Denver, it is not here, and it is now now.
No comments:
Post a Comment