UPDATE – The Broncos have officially announced on Tuesday that that Tim Tebow will be the starter for the next Denver Broncos game. The Broncos are on their bye week, and their next game is Sunday, October 23 at Miami.
ORIGINAL STORY – The Denver Broncos fell to 1-4 as they lost 29-24 to a Chargers team that improved their record to 4-1. In spite of the loss, Broncos fans got what they’ve been cheering for as head coach John Fox put Tim Tebow in at quarterback to start the second half, and Tebow almost pulled off the comeback in spite of a sizeable halftime deficit.
Broncos starter Kyle Orton was ineffective in the first half, as he went 6 of 13 passing for 34 yards, with no TDs and 1 INT, while the Broncos fell behind 23-10, setting up the second half switch.
Tebow came in to start the third quarter to wild cheering from the home crowd, and although it took him a while to get going, his fourth quarter proved what the fans have been saying – that he does give the team a chance to win.
After the Chargers kicked a field goal to go ahead by 26-10 early in the fourth, the comeback was on. Tebow engineered a 4-play, 51 yard drive that featured a 28-yard run by Willis McGahee and three rushes by Tebow, including one of 11 yards and a 12-yard TD run with 6:35 left in the game. McGahee ran in the two point conversion to bring the Broncos to within 8, at 26-18.
A Philip Rivers fumble on the next series gave the Broncos the ball back with 4:38 left in the game at the San Diego 41-yard line. After runs by Tebow and McGahee to get the Broncos to the 28, Tebow completed a TD pass to Knowshon Morena to bring the Broncos to within a 2-point conversion of tying the game, but the conversion failed, leaving them down by 2 points with 3:19 left on the clock.
The Chargers regrouped and chewed up most of the remaining clock with a 3 minute drive resulting in a field goal to push their lead to 29-24. After the ensuing kickoff, Tebow had 24 seconds left from his own 20 yard line, and needing a TD to win.
Tebow completed passes of 20 yards to Brandon Lloyd and 31 yards to Daniel Fells to get the ball to the San Diego 29 yard line, and succeeded in spiking the ball to stop the clock with 1 second left.
His Hail Mary pass attempt fell incomplete in the end zone as time expired, but the fourth quarter rally was enough to provide some hope to Broncos fans, who haven’t had much to cheer about this season.
The Chargers are still one of the premier teams in the AFC, and they turned in a solid overall performance with over 200 yards rushing as a team, including 125 by Ryan Mathews. Rivers finished the game with 250 yards passing, 1 TD and 1 INT.
At the end of the day, Tebow’s numbers for the second half weren’t stellar, but he moved the ball effectively and nearly pulled out the victory. He finished 4 of 10 for 79 yards and a TD passing, and most of that was on the final drive, plus he ran the ball 6 times for 38 yards and 1 rushing TD. He still has work to do on his passing game, but he is a dangerous threat running the ball already, and he has shown that he can move the team, engineer and finish scoring drives and handle the pressure at crunch time.
