The Inexplicable is Explained (maybe)

I would like to talk about how the Houston Texans dominated on both sides of the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals but it is more of a mirage because the Bengals really are not that good of a football team. And T.J. Yates at Baltimore next week? Let's be real here. Unless Joe Flacco poops the bed, which he very well could because he is Joe Flacco, the Texans don't really have a shot.

I would like to talk about how the New York Giants made everyone agree with Dennis Green about the Atlanta Falcons as a whole but more specifically the awful coaching that is Mike Smith. (Hey, Mike...your running back has thighs the size of my torso. Matt Ryan does not. Forth and short decision made for you right there. Your welcome when you figure that out at your next coaching job.)

And lastly, I would like to talk about while even though the New Orleans Saints look unbeatable, the Detroit Lions beat themselves (again...and again...and again) and the Saints will not have nearly the same success next week against the San Francisco 49ers.

But all of those story lines can be easily explained with these great things called your eyes and common sense so it is not very challenging to talk about and predict.

Then He appeared.

Why of course I'm talking about Tim Tebow and the awe-inspiring, head slamming, Twitter and Stephen A. Smith head-exploding, roller coaster ride that he gave us all against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Let's just lay down the stats real quick. The Steelers were 1st in the league in total defense, 1st in the league in pass yards allowed per game, 8th in the league in rushing yards allowed per game, and 1st in the league in points allowed per game. The only hiccup would be the fact that they were DEAD LAST in takeaways in the NFL. Offensively the Steelers were nothing special averaging just a single point per game more than the Broncos. The Broncos were not surprisingly 1st in rushing yards and second-to-last in passing yards.

If we try to go by our eye and common sense test as we did for the first three games, the end result should be something within the realm of the Steelers winning 24 to 16. The thing is though that one Tim Tebow is involved. That means anything you have ever learned about what should happen in an NFL game is nuked and vaporized.

First 2 Denver possessions: 6 plays, 8 yards, 2 punts. Yikes. It's ok though, get your playoff virginity jitters out of the way against the best defense in the league without handing them a pick-six and not to mention your still healthy.

Next possession: 21 yard strike to Eric Decker, who then promptly gets his knee blown out by James Harrison. Now your down to Demaryius Thomas, Daniel Fells, Eddie Royal, and Matt Willis. Not exactly The Greatest Show On Turf but let's see what happens...Tebow throws the ball forward! And it's still going! Thomas on a 51 yard catch against Ike Taylor. What is this? Another forward movement of the ball through the air? Into Eddie Royal's lap for a 30 yard touchdown? I must be dreaming.

But lo He was not finished in the second quarter. After a Pittsburgh three-and-out and a bad throw by Roethlisberger that would have otherwise been a touchdown to Mike Wallace, Denver takes over on their own 27. Second play of the drive...is it a bird? Is it a UFO? No! It's another 58 bomb to Thomas on Taylor (see a common theme here? Someone is also missing from these plays...) After an 8 yard Tebow run for a score it's 14-6 Broncos. Still a one possession game until...

Big Ben throws an interception that the Broncos get back on the Steelers own 18 yard line. Field goal good.

Another Pittsburgh punt, another Denver drive that leads to a field goal.

Pittsburgh driving at the end of the half. Backup center Doug Legursky snaps it over Roethlisberger's head. Drive over. Broncos 20, Steelers 6 at halftime.

Cue the "Is this real life?" kid.

Oh yes it felt good.

Absolutely everything is going the Broncos way at this point between Tebow throwing for 185 yards on only 5 completions(!!!!!!!!!!!), Thomas having 109 yards on only 2 receptions, and the Steelers ineptitude on offense.

Flash-forward to the fourth quarter after the Broncos and Steelers traded a couple field goals and a touchdown and the Broncos are still up 7, 23-16. At this point I'm feeling pretty confident that the Broncos will pull this out with relative ease due to it being the fourth quarter and all and the magic that surround Tebow at this point of the game. On this occassion though the magic did not transfer to Willis McGahee when Tebow touched him. Willis procedes to fumble the ball near midfield and the Steelers recover.

Big Ben suddenly looks like Big Ben again when he starts to utilize his feet more to escape pressure and find open men as he did when he hit Jerricho Cotchery, whom I honestly forgot was even on the team and haven't heard a word about in 5 years, on a 31 yard strike to tie the game with 3:50 left to play. Plenty of time for Tebow to do what they have been doing well all game: throw the ball.

McGahee runs for a yard on first down, followed by a Tebow laser (his version anyway) to Matt Willis for 17 yards. Naturally because of the success of the play, you would think that you would pass on first down. Well, you nor I is John Fox, who proceeds to call a run play that gets only two yards. Tebow then throws his single worst pass of the day, a quail to Thomas that would've gotten a first down.

I'm starting to lose my belief in the Broncos ability to summon any late game miracle at this point. My gut feeling was that Ben and the Steelers were gonna march down with 1:37 left and kick a field goal as time expired to win. After a sack, Ben hits Antonio Brown down at the Steelers 38 but then inexplicably let 20 seconds run off the clock with two timeouts left. Next play, catch by Emmanuel Sanders to the Broncos 45. Well that was a great story and run while it lasted Den...Roethlisberger fumbled the ball. There may still be life here! Last play of regulation the Broncos bring 5 men (someone tell me why all teams don't do this when a team has to get 50-plus yards) and Big Ben goes down.

Overtime

And, as is tradition, the Broncos win the coin toss after referee Ron Winter took 3 days to poorly explain the playoff overtime rules. What was definitely NOT part of tradition was what happened next. The Steelers put 9 men in the box, Tebow hits Demaryius Thomas on a slant. Take a wild guess who was covering him? Ike Taylor! Ike will not be running for President anytime soon after Sunday, but everyone still likes Ike because he allowed Thomas to easily catch the ball, yell "LITTLE BOY!!!!!!!!!" at him, and waltz into the endzone.

Remember earlier when I said that someone was missing from these plays? Um....where was Troy Polamalu at any point during this game. You are a safety which means you are the last line of defense against long plays. Tebow had three passes of 50 yards or more. No other quarterback has EVER done that in a playoff game since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970. I know Ryan Clark didn't play but I think more blame should be placed on him because quite frankly I have not heard a single bad thing about his play yet.

Now we get to the "Say What?!?!" portion of the article.

At Florida, Tebow sported eye black with Bible verses. One of his favorite was John 3:16.

Here's where it gets downright creepy thanks to some work from Will Brinson at CBS. Tebow passed for 316 yards. He averaged 31.6 yards per pass completion. The overnight rating of the final 15 minutes of the game was 31.6. Ben Roethlisberger's interception was thrown on, you guessed it, 3rd and 16. And lastly, the Pittsburgh Steelers time of possession was 31 minutes and 6 seconds. 

I am in no way, shape, or form a religious man. But you cannot just look at that stuff above and brush it off as simple coincidence. If it was just his passing yards then fine, I would accept coincidence, but this...this just feels like another level of things. I am not preaching that God is helping Tebow win games. He's winning games because he puts his team in a position to win games more often than not. 

I gave it my best chance at trying to decipher whatever is going on in Denver. That is the best anyone can do. Give it a chance. Like the Broncos did with Tebow. Like you should with Tebow. And like the Broncos will have against the Patriots.