Tim Tebow finally got his first start, and in a sense – he proved both his critics and fans to be right. He led his Broncos on a come-from-behind 18-15 victory over the Miami Dolphins in one of the most exciting games of the day.
Critics have said that Tebow is not a good pocket passer yet, and he struggled a bit from the pocket as the Broncos dropped to a 15-0 deficit halfway through the fourth quarter.
But Tebow’s advocates have said that he is a great competitor and a winner, and he proved that by rallying the Broncos in the fourth quarter. He threw 2 fourth quarter TD passes, both in the last 3 minutes of the game, plus he ran in the 2 point conversion to tie the game at 15-15 and force overtime.
Kicker Matt Prater hit a 52 yard field goal in overtime to give the Broncos the 18-15 win, only their second win of the season. Prater missed two field goals earlier in the game, but came through in overtime.
“I felt like I needed to redeem myself,” Prater said. “The team expects me to make every kick. I didn’t have my best kick and I expect to make it, too. I felt confident.”
Tebow finished the game 13 of 27 for 161 yards and 2 TDs, plus he ran the ball 8 times for 65 yards.
“I kept believing and more importantly, I kept believing in the people around me that eventually we were going to be able to start getting things going, and eventually we did,” saidTebow.
“It started with little bits then we started getting chunks and we kept going. I was proud of our team that we kept getting up.”
There are certainly elements of his game that Tebow needs to continue to work on, and the 2-4 Broncos struggled to beat the 0-6 Dolphins (and were scoreless for the first 57 minutes of the game). But what Tebow does bring to the table is something that you can’t teach. He is a winner and he has the “Right Stuff” to be an NFL quarterback. He’s going to have to continue to work on his pocket passing, but he has the potential to be a great NFL quarterback.
