All-purpose, running Tim Tebow sucks/is a deity thread!

I think it dips over into football particularly when people try to apply statistical methods to a sport that doesn't lend itself to that kind of stat-reading. During the Tebow saga we've had some discussion of the fact that his stats are terrible for three quarters and tremendous in the fourth, and there's a divide about whether it's a fluke that will soon rectify itself or a characteristic.

 

Let's just remember who jumped on this idea first:

I'm driving this bandwagon, baby!!!

 

Where various quarterbacks rank in career passer rating:

3. Tony Romo
5. Philip Rivers
6. Peyton Manning
7. Kurt Warner
10. Joe Montana
11. Matt Schaub
15. Matt Ryan
17. Dan Marino
22. David Garrard
27. Jim Kelly
30. Roger Staubach
45. Troy Aikman
50. Warren Moon
51. Damon Huard
58. Steve Beuerlein
59. Dan Fouts
65. Kyle Orton
70. Phil Simms
72. Johnny Unitas

Looks like an excellent tabulator of greatness!

 

At at-bat is an at-bat is an at-bat.

But in the last two minutes of a football game, you are running a different offense against a different defense than either team has played the whole game up to that point.

Even if you don't want to go so far as to make it a character thing - and I would argue that if you really want to go down that route, it says as much about someone's character when they come out flat every week as it does that they close strong - it only makes sense that the altered dynamics of the X's and O's might favor someone's skill set.

 

You don't have to convince me.

 

Tebow has had more great 4th Qtr. moments in Dec. than Alex Smith has had in a 6 yr career. And that's just based on what's on the highlights. The game was on the line yesterday, 4th and 1 from the 40 and all Smith could come up with was a desperation pass to a RB after running around 20 yds behind the line of scrimmage. Not to his high 1st rd WR (Crabtree), not to his supposedly All-World TE (Davis), not even to another WR, but to a 2nd string RB who is not known for his receiving. He couldn't even roll out and get to the corner to put some pressure on the edge. Tebow went 30 yds on 4th and 4 against the Jets down 3 to win.

 

Fatigued fourth quarter defenses? He'll have to quit engineering so many 3-and-outs for that to be a factor.

Look, it's not just quarterback rating. It's everything that goes into QB rating. Tebow is completing 48 percent of his passes. That. Is. Horrible. And he's one of the worst in the NFL at yards per attempt. Those are two telling stats.

And look, in two of his miracle comebacks, the only reason his team was in position to comeback was a combination of bad offense from the opponent and great defense from the Broncos. In most NFL games, rallying for 10 late fourth quarter points after getting your offensive ass handed to you for 50-plus minutes means your butt gets beat Something to 10 and everybody is talking about changing the QB because the offense is so putrid.

Only in Tim Tebow fandom bizzaro universe is there this strategy that says "let's do absolutely nothing, NOTHING, on offense for 50 minutes, then we'll let Tebow win it for us in the last five." Nope. That's not the approach. They are just AWFUL with Tebow under center for almost entire games.

It's by the love of Allah that the defense keeps them lose enough to allow the late drives to be of any significance. ;D

 

If he's more than a game manager, he'd lead a few scoring drives before the 2-minute warning. I mean, you are allowed to move the ball before the end of the game, ya know.

 

You will come around, Brian. You and MileHigh. By the end of the season you will be among us.

 

What would be really nice? If all the assorted talking heads could wait until he's played in more than a dozen games to declare him either God's gift to football or the worst QB in history.

As a Broncos fan, I don't know WTF to think. What I do know is that I'm going to need a larger sample size, regardless of what happened last week or happens this week.

 

And the only reason Tebow's fourth quarter dramatics mean anything is they are holding Chicago to 10 points and holding the Jets to 13 while the defense also contributes seven points of its own on a pick-6.

Maybe the Broncos would be on to something if they'd find a quarterback who can competently run an offense for the first 50 minutes then fire up Tebow for the 2-minute warning. He could be the Brian Wilson of Football.