Yeah, I don’t think anyone (here) thinks Tebow is a great quarterback, but he certainly looked decent there. Had some very good throws, and some horrible throws. Also, I don’t know how much of it is PR or NFL-fluff, but I get the impression that Phil Simms thinks Tebow’s improved quite a bit since they first started seeing him.
I guess you can say the Steelers were daring Tebow to beat them with his throwing arm, by crowding the line so much. And he did!
Also, Ike Taylor? Number 24 for the Steelers - played a horrible game (yeah, he was victimized on the last play but he had some other bad plays in the game prior to that).
Tim Tebow: NFL playoff game-winning starting QB. No one can ever take that away from him.
Unless the NCAA gets involved, somehow!
He’s improved A TON. But he’s still not great.
The Steelers entered the game without their leading rusher, their center, and leading tackler; then during the game lost two starting defensive lineman and their left tackle. Seems to me Pittsburgh lost as much as Denver won. At least Tebow actually threw the ball this game. :)
Yeah I thought he did well but I cringed on that low throw late in the 4th that would’ve been a first down near field goal range.
Whatever the analysis ends up being, it was still a thriller.
Once again, the wisdom of betting on the home underdog is proven. The Freakonomics guys are right again.
Man, best game of the weekend, no contest. I’ll agree that Tebow has a ways to go in his passing game, but he hasn’t even had a full season of starts yet. He does look like he’s making progress.
And besides his running ability, he has one other thing that is hard to measure. He’s very good about shaking off the pass rush and buying time. There were a few times I think a smaller QB would have gone down from the pressure but Tebow stayed on his feet and got outside the pocket and had a chance to make a play.
It’s fun to watch Denver play. I like seeing the option and I like seeing Tebow charge into the endzone and then go over to the sidelines breathing fire.
Rimbo
6268
He now has exactly as many playoff wins as Tony Romo.
Volksy
6269
4 more wins and he’ll match another of Fox’s QBs, Jake Delhomme <g>.
Actually, aside from the 2003-2007 Delhomme being a much better passer and a much worse runner than Tebow, they’re kinda similar. Jake had a LOT of come-from-behind wins (surprisingly 2nd in the league during that time to some guy named Peyton) and seemed to play better in the final 2-3 minutes and in OT than he had in the rest of the game. He had that “he just wins” thing going which was hard to explain at times.
Hell, that Tebow play in OT most reminded me of Jake hitting Steve Smith over the middle vs. the Rams in 2003 for the game-winning score, where Smith took off after the catch and outran defenders into the end zone. That was at the start of the 2nd overtime in the playoffs.
That season ended with Fox getting badly outcoached by Belicheck in the Super Bowl, with the very good Panther D never putting much pressure on Brady. It was a shootout in the 4th quarter mainly due to Delhomme playing out of his mind. I’m curious to see what happens against Belichek next week. I’d bet on not being able to stop Brady yet again (who has?) but who knows what will happen with Tebow. Oh, and of Fox’s previous 5 playoff wins, 4 of 'em were on the road.
Interesting. Tebow passed for 316 yards and averaged 31.6 yards per completion. That Bible verse, John 3:16, is probably the most famous verse in the Bible. And the TD pass to win the game was to a receiver who was born on Christmas day.
i don’t understand the new playoff OT rules. I mean, I understand how they work, I don’t understand what the justification behind them is. It’s like they recognized that the normal OT rules are stupid (they are), but rather than actually fixed them, they just band-aided them in the most awkward way possible. It offends the game designer in me. They should’ve just gone to the college football shootout-style rules and been done with it.
Lorini
6273
I don’t think they contemplated a one play finish to a TD since it had never happened before. I totally understand the rules but I’m fairly sure they were thinking more of the march down to the 20 yard line where the initial team then kicks the game winning FG.
Right, but that’s what I mean by they band-aided it. People complained that the regular overtime rules are basically a coin flip to who wins, because the receiving team can march down for a field goal 90% of the time. So, rather than actually think about how to make it better they just said “Well, uh, if that happens, uh, the game isn’t over! Yeah, that’s it. The other team gets the ball, too!”
The new rules basically mean that instead of a straight coin-flip who wins, you get a coin flip to see if your offense of defense determines who wins. Look at the Packers or Patriots this year: if they get into a post-season OT, their defenses are as bad as their offense is good, so it’s basically still win the toss-win the game.
It introduces a new bizarre incentive to have an equally good offense and defense that only comes into play in overtime, instead of letting OT reward teams in the same way the regulation game does. Which is just weird. It’s marginally less bad than the previous system, but it’s still bad.
Funny thought: has an overtime game ever ended with a safety? The new system would actually have the same result as the old system here, because the team would get possession of the ball with 2 points on the board, so they should automatically win. (Edit: unless the scored-on team recovers the onside kick…interesting!)
Edit 2: Wooo! Wikipedia says yes!
Only two regular-season NFL games have ever ended in overtime with a safety: in 1989 when the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Los Angeles Rams 23–21 when Mike Merriweather blocked a punt into the end zone, and in 2004 when the Chicago Bears defeated the Tennessee Titans 19–17 when Billy Volek fumbled in his own end zone and a teammate recovered it but was unable to get out of the end zone. A 1989 pre-season game also ended in an overtime safety.
Why can’t they just have a 15 minute “quarter” for overtime, and whoever is ahead at the end of it wins. If it’s still tied you have another one. If it’s still tied after two, whichever team has the most offensive yards in the game wins.
Lorini
6276
Because TV would have a fucking heart attack is most likely why.
Fuck TV and their stupid schedules, this is football we’re talking about here.
But, yeah.
jeffd
6278
Safety immediately ends the game under the new OT system.
Yeah, that makes sense, although the whole thing is still special case-y.
There are sixty previous minutes for teams to determine their own fate, the overtime coin flip isn’t to blame.
I think this rule change is about what most all rule changes try to be about these days- increase scoring.
In the old system, if you’re the coach you have your team kick a field goal in OT as soon as you can to end the game.
In theory, this new system forces coaches to push for a touchdown as much as possible. If you are on the opponent’s 20 yard line with 3rd and long, you’re going to seriously try for that first down, not position yourself for the field goal.
I don’t like it though because it devalues field goals. One thing I’ve always liked about football is that extra points and field goals are vital. Games have been won and lost based on which team made their kicks and which ones didn’t. Now it’s like they are saying field goals are cheap scores and don’t count even as much as ANY defensive score(which will end an OT game now). So a safety=game over, but a hard earned field goal doesn’t?
