First and 10: Tebow the hero

Published: October 24th, 2011 | Tags: First and 10, Arian Foster, Carson Palmer, Chicago Bears, Cliff Avril, Jeff Darlington, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh, New York Jets, NFL Network, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Stephen J. Dubner, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tim Tebow

The Tim Tebow era got off to a memorable start in Miami Sunday, where the former Florida Gator looked terrible for three-and-a-half quarters before rallying the Broncos to turn a 15-0 deficit with 2:39 left into an 18-15 overtime win. Jeff Darlington was in Miami for the aftermath of a thrilling Denver comeback, and a shocking Dolphins collapse.

Here’s what else is on tap for Monday:

Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan and running backs Beanie Wells, Earnest Graham, Darren McFadden and Willis McGahee were among the players injured on Sunday. Get the full injury roundup here.Atlanta Falcons players accused Lions defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril of taunting quarterback Matt Ryan when Ryan was on the field writhing in pain after hurting his knee during Atlanta’s victory in Detroit.Carson Palmer‘s Silver and Black debut was a disaster, as Palmer and Kyle Boller were each picked off three times in a 28-0 shutout courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs.Texans running back Arian Foster had a monster stat line against the Titans, amassing 234 total yards and three TDs, but was he the top fantasy player of the week? Cast your vote now to decide!Posted in: Around The Web   comments    

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Broncos QB Tebow Hops Aboard NFL's QB Carousel

(Reuters) - Tim Tebow had a triumphant homecoming by rallying the Denver Broncos to an 18-15 overtime win against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday as the National Football League's (NFL) quarterback carousel continued to spin.

Making his first start of the season, the former Heisman Trophy winner who led the University of Florida to a national title in 2009 produced the magic that many football fans have come to expect with an unlikely comeback that set up a 52-yard overtime field goal and left Miami winless.

As the NFL season approaches the midway point, teams opted to reshuffle the quarterback deck with mixed success.

John Beck, making his first NFL start in four years for the Washington Redskins, had little to celebrate as the Carolina Panthers romped to a 33-20 win.

Later on Sunday, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder makes his first career start in place of Donovan McNabb against the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers while former Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Palmer is expected to make his debut in a Raiders uniform against the Kansas City Chiefs after being traded earlier in the week.

The Detroit Lions could also be looking at bringing in a backup next week after Matthew Stafford limped off the field with an apparent ankle injury in a 23-16 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

The loss of Stafford would be a massive blow to the Lions, who have lost two straight after opening the season with five consecutive wins.

In London, the focus was on elusive running back Matt Forte who scampered for 145 yards and a touchdown as the Chicago Bears stopped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18 in front of an enthusiastic packed house a Wembley Stadium.

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, the football spotlight was firmly focused on Miami and Tebow's much hyped return to Florida and the stadium where he helped win a BCS national championship.

Tebow's homecoming looked to be an unmitigated disaster as Miami built a 15-0 lead and the Denver quarterback struggled, completing just three of eight pass attempts for 24 yards through three quarters.

A fan favorite in Denver and Florida, coaches have been less enamored with Tebow, whose passing ability has not often matched his enthusiasm and athleticism.

But Tebow proved his doubters wrong by firing two touchdown passes in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter then charging across for a two-point convert to force overtime.

Mark Sanchez, another quarterback under attack by the media, silenced his critics by tossing three touchdown passes to wide receiver Plaxico Burress as the New York Jets rallied for a 27-21 win over the San Diego Chargers.

Burress, back in the NFL after serving a 20-month prison sentence on gun charges, was Sanchez's go-to man as the Jets struck for 17 unanswered second half points to improve to 4-3 and get back in the fight for top spot in the AFC East.

(Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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Tebow Debate Rages on Despite Comeback Heroics

After Tebow's first start of the season on Sunday, the debate remains open for all but the most fanatical in either camp.

The Floridian combines a Johnny Unitas throwback hairstyle with a running back's physique, a winning smile and a take-home-to-Mom politeness, all wrapped up with home-schooled Christian values.

That makes him a marketing and branding dream for the Denver Broncos, the NFL, television and all manner of sponsors.

But there are those who think he might prove to be the NFL's version of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova -- popular, attractive and talented but not cut out for the weekly grind of the professional circuit.

For three quarters of the game at the Miami Dolphins, the critics appeared right. Tebow's passing was poor, he needed too much time to read situations and he just never looked comfortable.

Then, with time running out, he took the game by the scruff of the neck and the Tebow that had delighted fans of the 2008 Florida Gators national championship winning team -- brimming with confidence and willing to improvise -- re-emerged and won the game for his team.

The passing yardage numbers only tell part of the story. In terms of his impact on the game, he simply went from zero to hero.

Two touchdown passes and a successful two-point conversion that he ran in himself, took the Broncos from 15-0 down to overtime, which they won with a field goal.

It was a Hollywood storyline and proof, if nothing else, of Tebow's remarkable character and confidence.

But did it show he is good enough to become a week-in-week-out, four quarters, every down, quarterback?

"He's got those intangibles that we see every time he plays," former Broncos Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, now executive vice-president, told the Denver Post.

"When that clock is sticking down and something's got to happen, that's what triggers the competitor in him.

"He's a guy that as long as there's time on the clock, he's going to give us a chance to win. Those are things you can't coach," he said.

RANGE OF WEAPONS

Coaching work is evident in Tebow's game though -- his throwing action has been adjusted since his college day, even if it is yet to reach the smoothness of delivery and the premium accuracy that is required in the pro game.

His reading of blitzes was poor -- he was sacked seven times by the Dolphins -- and he looked slow at times 'reading' situations.

In Tebow's defense, his coaches took a conservative approach to play selection until late in the game. He also lacks a great range of weapons in the Broncos' receiving corps.

It will take much more than one game for a definitive verdict on Tebow to be reached.

"We said all along, you know, Tim is a work in progress," Broncos head coach John Fox told reporters on Monday as he looked back on the comeback victory.

"It was only his fourth start in the National Football League and he will just continue to get better. I think he'll tell you and I know I'd tell you, I liked the last five minutes better than the first 55. We feel like he'll improve."

Perhaps the Broncos will need to draw some conclusions from the way Tebow delivered so well in the latter stages. Perhaps they will need to go back to what made their quarterback so effective in college football.

"They are going to have to run the spread offense with this guy and run the running game out of the spread," ESPN football analyst Herm Edwards told the New York Times.

"If you want to win some games, let him play that way. If you put him in a conventional offense, he's going to struggle."

The debate may not be about whether Tebow can make it in the NFL. It may be a case of whether the NFL can make it for Tebow.

Does the professional league have enough room, enough coaching freedom and strategic flexibility to find a way to let Tebow be Tebow?

(Editing by Ian Ransom; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Broncos 18, Dolphins 15 (OT): Tim Tebow Leads Denver Broncos Over Miami Dolphins

The Broncos’ coaching staff, which had made him the starter just two weeks ago, had so little confidence in him that through three quarters, he attempted just eight passes.

But with five minutes left and the Miami Dolphins playing prevent defense, Tebow turned into the player who inspires fans to erect billboards and opposing teams to honor him when he visits, rallying the Broncos to two touchdowns.

And when Denver lined up for the 2-point attempt that would send the game to overtime, it seemed that only the Dolphins had never seen highlights from Tebow’s Heisman Trophy-winning career. They had their defense spread across the field, leaving gaping holes between each player. Tebow took the snap and ran off right tackle, untouched, for the conversion.

From there, the result seemed a fait accompli. The Broncos won, 18-15, on Matt Prater’s 52-yard field goal, giving them their second victory of the season and sinking the Dolphins to 0-6.

After the game, to the delight of a few hundred University of Florida fans left on the field, Tebow came out of the locker room to greet some of his former college teammates. He had led them to a national championship on the same field, when his legend took flight. The Broncos got no greater clarity Sunday about who their quarterback of the future is.

But they do understand now the ineffable quality Tebow seems to summon when things appear bleakest, and why so many people clamor for Tebow to have a chance.

“There’s competitive greatness,” Denver Coach John Fox said. “Not everybody that plays in this league has it. It’s a great quality to have. We have a guy — No. 7 that I work with every day — he had it. He definitely had it.”

Comparing Tebow to the former Broncos great John Elway, who is Denver’s executive vice president for football operations, should delight the Broncos fans who had implored Fox to start Tebow after Kyle Orton faltered in the first month of the season.

But even the way the Broncos played in overtime summed up the difficult and delicate decision that Fox and the Broncos face with Tebow. They have made him the starter now because they must find out if he can be their quarterback of the future.

The concerns that led them to make Orton the starter for opening day, however, seem to be lingering. In overtime, Tebow did not throw a pass, as the Broncos essentially reapplied the training wheels they had left on him for most of the game.

After the game, Fox said bluntly that if Tebow had completed more than three of his first eight passes, maybe Denver would have had him throw more, because the situation became dire.

On the game’s final drive, which started at the Dolphins’ 36 after Denver recovered a fumble, the Broncos had Tebow hand off three times, signaling that they would rather take their chances with a long field-goal attempt from a kicker who had missed two shorter tries earlier in the game.

Other than the victory, the game might have been the worst-case situation for the Broncos. They fear that the Tebow on display for most of the game is the real one, a better runner than passer, and that he may never be the accurate pocket passer they crave. Broncos coaches were clearly spooked when, on the Broncos’ first drive of the game, they used something resembling the spread option that Tebow ran to such great success in college.

But on his first pass, under pressure, he was nearly intercepted. After that, the Broncos (2-4) seemed to travel back to the 1970s, calling for handoff after handoff.

In the first three quarters, Tebow completed 3 of 8 passes for 24 yards and was sacked four times. He looked so bad that it was reasonable to wonder if the Broncos would give him another start.

“As a football player, as an athlete, you can’t lose confidence in yourself — or you’ve lost already,” Tebow said.

In the fourth quarter, he was 10 of 19 for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns, and there is no way coaches can ignore his ability to steer a team to victory even if the road there is sometimes ugly. So the Tebow experiment will live on, charming fans, confusing coaches and making everyone else wonder if there might be a place for a very different kind of N.F.L. quarterback.

“I’ve just got to play better in the first three quarters,” Tebow said, “so we don’t have to make that comeback.”

The Broncos would love for it to be that easy.

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Broncos’ Bailey says Tebow is special player

Published: October 20th, 2011 | Tags: Champ Bailey, Denver Broncos, Kyle Orton, NFL Total Access, Open Locker Room, Tim Tebow

We’ll presume that Champ Bailey has seen almost everything there is to see in the NFL over 13-plus seasons. What he hasn’t seen is anything, or rather anyone, quite like Tim Tebow.

Even as Bailey claimed his seat on the Tebow bandwagon, the words of the six-time All-Pro and 10-time Pro Bowl cornerback carry some significant weight.

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“Tebow is a special kind of a player; I’ve never seen a player like him in my whole career,” Bailey said on “NFL Total Access” on Thursday. “So it’s going to be interesting to see what happens, and I’m going to give it all I’ve got for the guy. I know he’s going to be out there giving it 110 (percent), so I’m going to go 120. That’s just the way I see it.”

Bailey, to his credit, doesn’t view the mid-season quarterback change through rose-colored glasses. He keeps it pretty real.

“It’s never a good thing to have to switch quarterbacks; it must mean that there is some inconsistency at the position, so it’s never a good thing,” Bailey said. “Nobody is going to like it, but if you feel like it’s going to give us a little something that we need at the moment, yeah, I think players are all for it.”

The saying is that you can’t fool the players. They see Tebow in practice daily, and if he gives the Broncos the best chance to win, the players are the first to know. We’ll see how that all works out starting Sunday in Miami.

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The Fifth Down: It's Tebow Time, and John Fox Can't Lose

Judy Battista on Tim Tebow Time:

Broncos Coach John Fox bowed to the inevitable, naming Tim Tebow his starting quarterback over Kyle Orton. Because the Broncos have a bye Sunday, Tebow has two weeks to prepare for his first start. It will come in Florida, where he became an object of fan obsession; the Broncos play the Miami Dolphins on Oct. 23. The Dolphins had previously scheduled for that day a celebration of the Florida Gators team that Tebow led to the national title in the 2008 season.

The switch to Tebow should delight Broncos fans, who have clamored for him — some have paid thousands of dollars for billboards imploring Fox to start him — but it puts the Broncos’ new coaching staff and front office in an odd spot. During the lockout, they were prepared to turn the team over to Tebow and trade Orton, with the Dolphins the most likely destination.

Woody Paige of The Denver Post said Tebow’s success would hinge on his coaches:

As we sat at a picnic table at Dove Valley, Fox emphatically stated that he — not John Elway and not Pat Bowlen — made the decision to promote Tebow to No. 1, “just as I did Sunday,” when the coach changed his quarterbacks at halftime. “It was a gut reaction,” Fox said.

Extra point It seems doubtful that Fox relied purely on gut instinct. This decision is too important for the franchise. In a way, though, Fox is in a no-lose situation. If Tebow succeeds, the Broncos will prosper, and that’s good news for all. If Tebow fails, that will release some of the pressure that has been building for Fox and Denver management. Fox can say: See, I gave the kid a shot. Fox will no doubt give him a fair shot. He wants to win. But if Tebow falls on his face, do you suppose Fox will not be as disappointed as he professes?

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Meyer: Success up to team, not just Tebow

Tim Tebow’s coach at Florida, Urban Meyer, has long defended his former quarterback.

Now, that Tebow is the starting quarterback in Denver, Meyer is putting the pressure more on the Broncos as a team than on Tebow himself.

In a radio interview with a Tampa station, Meyer said the Broncos must improve so Tebow has a chance to succeed.

“I just hope that the Denver Broncos have enough firepower and they just get better as a team,” Meyer said. “I’m a Broncos fan now and I want to see those guys do well and one guy doesn’t change a team.”

When asked if Tebow can fix the issues with his throwing motion, Meyer went right back to the team concept.

“It’s a question if the team will. I think Tim will,” Meyer said. “This whole thing that one guy in one phase of the game is all of the sudden is going to put the Denver Broncos in the playoffs, it’s always going to be this way that the quarterback gets far too much criticism and too much glory when they win. He’ll manage whatever deficiency he has in throwing the ball, it’s just a matter of if the Broncos can improve their play enough to win.”

In other AFC West nuggets Thursday afternoon:

Oakland linebacker Rolando McClain was back at practice Thursday after missing Wednesday’s workout. He suffered an ankle injury at Houston. If McClain doesn’t suffer a setback, he should be able to play against Cleveland this Sunday.

Linebacker Aaron Curry has reportedly not shown up in Oakland yet. The Raiders acquired him from Seattle on Wednesday. The Oakland Tribune believes Curry likely won’t be ready to play until next week against Kansas City.

The Chiefs headed into their bye-week break with a spirited practice.

A San Francisco columnist looks at how the Raiders will operate with the son of the late Al Davis running the team.

The mayor of San Diego has hired a consultant to help get the Chargers a new stadium.

Oakland coach Hue Jackson talked about the trying week for the team since the death of Davis in an interview with a Sacramento radio station.

In an Insider piece, ESPN.com looks at who has the toughest remaining schedule. The Chargers have a much tougher remaining slate than the Raiders do as they try to hold on down the stretch.

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Orton owners should worry about Tebow

Published: November 23rd, 2010 | Tags: Denver Broncos, Jon Kitna, Josh Freeman, Josh McDaniels, Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow was a mild irritant for fantasy owners when he started sneaking a touchdown — or four — away from the other Broncos you actually had on your team. But Tebow could develop into a full-blown fantasy rash if the Broncos continue to falter down the stretch.

Many of you Kyle Orton owners will shudder to even think about this topic. But at some point — when the season is lost in Denver — it seems inevitable that Tebow will get some starts. But just how soon will that happen?

Broncos coach Josh McDaniels would not take the bait from reporters Tuesday when asked this very question, according to  the Denver Post.

“I don’t know,” McDaniels said. ”Not willing to go there. That’s not the case right now, so we’ll think about that when that happens.”

McDaniels is right, mathematically. But a huge home loss to the Raiders and the drubbing in San Diego Monday night should be a final alarm for fantasy enthusiasts who own Orton, who ranks fourth among quarterbacks on NFL.com.

Do not hit the snooze button to get some extra sleep on this one. Grab another quarterback for the stretch drive, stat.

Fantasy editor Michael Fabiano already did the heavy lifting, but there are a few names to consider, starting with Buccaneers QB Josh Freeman and Cowboys QB Jon Kitna. Freeman has one of the best schedules down the stretch. This is also true of the Broncos, which would be awesome if Orton is still starting.

Tweet your fantasy questions to @nflfantasy. Your Tweet might end up on the air on NFL.com Fantasy LIVE.

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