Dave Krieger: Have NFL defenses figured out Tim Tebow?

I was on my way from the Mile High press box to the field late in Sunday's game when two passing fans shouted a greeting of sorts:

"Hey, you ever heard of Brady Quinn?"

"I've heard the name," I shouted back.

"Well, tell 'em to give him a chance!"

Fans are bound to be frustrated after watching their team score a total of three points and lose its third game in a row, but let's be honest:

If most any second-year NFL quarterback completed six of 22 passes for 60 yards, an interception and a passer rating of 20.6 in a game his coach had designated a playoff game, some sizeable portion of the fan base would be calling for the backup.

This is not about whether Tim Tebow is a good guy or a good role model. He's clearly both. This is about whether his performance over the last two weeks - 19-for-51 for 245 yards, a touchdown, four interceptions and two fumbles - suggests that NFL defenses have developed a template for shutting him down.

Quinn was hustling to escape the locker room - and perhaps to avoid such questions - when I caught up with him. What were his thoughts, I wondered, as he watched the two quarterbacks with whom he began the season struggling to get anything done offensively?

"I wish I could have been out there playing against someone, you know?" he said. "Everyone else got to be out there playing."

He was moving pretty fast and he'd arrived at the players' exit.

"Do you think this offense can get it back together?" I asked.

A guy in a security jacket blocked my path.

Quinn looked back as he exited. "I hope so," he said. "Hope so."

Meanwhile, in his corner of the locker room, rookie defensive back Chris Harris was confused. Sure, his team had just lost, but with the Raiders' loss minutes later, it had also just clinched the AFC West and a playoff berth in his first NFL season.

"We don't get no hat or nothing?" he asked no one in particular. "We don't get no shirt?"

I

don't know whether the Broncos would have issued AFC West championship hats or shirts had they finished the season with a win, but it was the strangest division-clinching locker room I've seen, caught between disappointment at another loss and joy at the puzzling result.

The Broncos finished 8-8, tied for first with Oakland and San Diego, winning the division by virtue of the third tie-breaker, their record against common opponents. Tebow had a lot to do with the team's resurrection from a 1-4 start behind Kyle Orton, whose single touchdown drive Sunday for the Chiefs was enough to beat his former team.

But over the past four weeks, opposing defenses have increasingly buttoned down the unconventional offense the Broncos built around Tebow. His improvement as a passer stalled, and the last two weeks his performance has regressed.

These ups and downs are not particularly unusual for a young quarterback, by the way. After throwing three interceptions against the Bills last week, he seemed hesitant Sunday to throw the ball into small windows. His more devoted followers will no doubt blame the play-calling, but he threw the ball 22 times and completed only six. That's poor, by any measure.

Granted, it should have been seven. A heartbroken Matt Willis sat in front of his locker afterward and quietly took full responsibility for dropping a Tebow throw on the Broncos' final possession that might have ignited one more bit of last-minute magic.

But it shouldn't always take last-minute magic, exciting as it is. A competent NFL quarterback needs to execute before magic is required, at least sometimes.

This is not to say that Tebow can't get there. It is just to say that right now, based on the last few weeks, defenses seem to have figured out a way to beat him: Bump his receivers, knock them off their routes and stay close enough that he's not willing to risk throwing into the narrow windows that are there.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming to town for the playoffs. They've got a pretty fair defense. If the Broncos can't pass the ball any better against them than they did against the Chiefs on Sunday, they might want to take a couple of fans' advice and have another passer warming up.

Because the botton line has nothing to do with whether you like Tebow or you don't: In the NFL, if you can't score, you can't win.

Dave Krieger: dkrieger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DaveKrieger

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/krieger/ci_19657954?source=rss

band of brothers being human being human the closer michael turner split pea soup land of the lost