Tim Tebow Supporters Take Aim at Denver Broncos Coach John Fox

In the wake of a brutal 45-10 pasting administered by the Detroit Lions in which their guy—Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow—was undeniably awful, his legion of supporters began the spin game in earnest.

Much was made of the "Tebowing" incident in Sunday's game, a play during which Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch sacked Tebow, then dropped to a knee next to the prone quarterback and put his hand to his forehead in the praying motion.

That pose became a viral sensation last week known as "Tebowing," with people assuming the pose in airports, at shopping malls and just random places out on the street.

In his second start of the season, Tebow and the Broncos dug a hole from which there was no recovering. A week after making a ton of plays in the final five minutes of regulation to engineer a come-from-behind win over the Miami Dolphins, Tebow made few plays that were beneficial to his own team.

After taking a 3-0 lead, Denver watched Detroit run off 45 unanswered points while Tebow overthrew and/or was late delivering the ball to receivers.

His forays into the running game when the pocket collapsed—which it did often against the Lions' ferocious pass rush—netted 63 yards but were mostly uneventful.

Tebow was 18-for-39—his second straight sub-50 percent performance—for 172 yards passing. Both of his turnovers were returned for defensive touchdowns.

Yet there are some out there, including at least one writer for a national website, claiming that Tebow was sabotaged by his own coaching staff.

Yes, according to this line of thinking, the Broncos were that bad on Sunday because John Fox's game plan and play-calling were designed to make Tebow look that bad.

This school of thought says Fox isn't buying Tebow, has never bought Tebow and just wants out from under the whole Tebow Experience.

The Cult of Tebow has a following the sheer size of which belies what the kid has actually done on an NFL field. He's 2-3 as an NFL starter, yet he's the most polarizing figure in the league right now, wresting that title from Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick.

The prevailing line of thinking from within that cult is that Fox was sabotaging Tebow by getting away from the spread offense Denver ran on its first possession.

Call me crazy, but Denver's not a spread-offense team.

Every quarterback in the league is asked to adapt their game to fit the system in which they play, and while most coaches will tweak that system—such as by adding a wrinkle like a few plays in the spread offense—no coach is going to completely reinvent his playbook to accommodate one player...unless that strategy will maximize the skills of the entire offensive unit, not just one guy.

There have been all sorts of crazy notions flying around the NFL this season, however.

The idea that teams would deliberately give less than their best in an effort to improve their position in the Andrew Luck draft (the unofficial name of the 2012 NFL draft) is one of those notions.

So too is the idea that a veteran NFL head coach would deliberately sabotage his own team in order to make one player look bad.

Fox has a bad team on his hands. The Broncos are deficient on defense, on the offensive line, at wide receiver.

The problem at receiver was made worse when the Broncos traded Brandon Lloyd to the St. Louis Rams in order to avoid the meltdown that would have ensued had the Pro Bowl receiver stayed in Denver after Tebow was promoted to first string.

Head coaches in the NFL are paid to win and fired if they don't, so I'm supposed to believe that Fox is tanking his own job security just to prove a point?

There's a chance Tebow can figure it out, that he can correct his mechanical flaws, improve his decision-making and become an effective NFL quarterback.

There's also a chance I might win the 2012 presidential election.

At this point, I like my chances better.