The Legend of Tim Tebow Adds Another Thrilling Chapter With Comeback Victory Over Dolphins

For anyone still watching the Denver Broncos game against the Miami Dolphins late in the fourth quarter (and honestly, outside of Denver/Miami fans, you'd have to be a true glutton for punishment to be still watching), you got to see some of that special Tim Tebow magic that makes his fans love him so much.

There was something for everyone in that game, however.  If you despise Tim Tebow, there was plenty in the first 54 minutes of the game to love as well.  Wildly thrown balls (some, to be honest, were probably throwaways), near-frenzied scrambles as soon as a defensive player touched him, and virtually none of the excitement that we all thought we'd get watching Tebow start a game.

Denver couldn't even manage a conversion on a third-down play until the first scoring drive with about five minutes left to play in the game.  It was just overall a completely inept offensive performance that confirmed all the bad things his detractors have been saying for a long time now.

(Photo: John Leyba/Denver Post)

Then, all of a sudden, it was like the second coming of Tebow.  I don't know why, but suddenly he was completing passes.  He wasn't running, mind you.  The ball moved down the field via passing, and what was a 15-0 deficit turned very quickly into a 15-15 tie by the end of regulation.

Oh sure, Tebow didn't do it himself.  The onside kick to get the ball back for the game-tying drive was huge, and the defense had been playing pretty good the entire game.  Certainly their fumble recovery in overtime was the main reason why the Broncos were able to win the game on a Matt Prater 52-yard field goal (and to anyone who saw it...wouldn't that have been good from 65 or more yards??).

However, Tebow should get a majority of the credit (and blame for the earlier play) here.  I'm quite certain that Kyle Orton would have been unable to pull off this kind of comeback.  I've reported the stats on fourth-quarter drives here with Orton, and he just doesn't have that ability.

In any case, it doesn't really answer a lot of questions pertaining to Tim Tebow. He still needs more time. He needs more reps passing, reading blitzing defenses, learning how to read how his receiver will break and then position his pass accurately.  We knew he had comeback potential, and this was probably the greatest example of that he's displayed in a Broncos uniform.

We already knew a lot of these things.  Now it's time for Tebow to show us what we don't know: that he can do all those other things that don't make these kinds of comebacks necessary.