Did Tim Tebow Record a Great Performance Against the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Sportswriting, more than any other form of journalism, tends to be saturated with hyperbole and cheap analysis anchored in short-term thinking.  

Consider, for example, the way sportswriters have treated Tim Tebow over the past dozen weeks. During an eight-game stretch that saw the Denver Broncos record seven wins to only one loss, pundits and analysts* hailed Tebow as a savior, a player who proved you don't have to possess the accuracy of Aaron Rodgers or the intuition of Drew Brees to be a successful NFL quarterback.

When Tebow hit a rough patch, something that is bound to happen to any second-year quarterback—granted it was an exceptionally bad stretch that saw Tebow put up numbers that can only be described as God awful—his supporters tempered their fervor for the second-year southpaw and predicted that the perennially excellent Pittsburgh Steelers would have no problem dispatching Tebow and the Broncos in round one of the NFL playoffs.

Then something funny happened. In the course of a single playoff game, Tebow turned in a performance that was profoundly un-Tebow-like. Rather than win the game in typical Tebow fashion—a combination of gritty running, dink and dunk passes and a healthy dose of sheer luck—Tebow seemingly transformed into a legitimate NFL quarterback. He threw for over 300 yards against the NFL's top rated defense, making him the only quarterback to do so this season, and finished off the Steelers by hitting Demaryius Thomas in stride in overtime, allowing the wide receiver to blow by two defenders for a game winning touchdown.

Now sportswriters are once again recalibrating their talent gauges and re-anointing Tebow as a legitimate offensive threat who, contrary to wisdom that was conventional just 15 minutes ago, has the ability to beat teams with his arm.

So the question remains: Did Tebow turn in an excellent performance against the Steelers, or did key injuries and an inadequate game plan doom the Pittsburgh defense?

The answer is a bit of a mixed bag.

Josh Levin, a senior editor at Slate, wrote an interesting piece that seeks to debunk the notion that Tebow's performance was due to his skill as a passer. Levin credits a Pittsburgh defensive scheme that consistently placed nine or 10 players in the box as the reason Tebow was able to look so effective against a previously staunch pass defense. He argues that Tebow is still an inconsistent passer at best, who late in the fourth quarter could not complete a simple crossing route that All-Pros like Brees can apparently complete with their eyes closed.

Levin is a fantastic writer, and while I can't say I completely agree with his analysis of the latest Tebow miracle, his article provides a good place to start when thinking about Sunday’s game.

For starters, comparing Tebow (heck, comparing nearly anyone) to Drew Brees is a bit unfair considering Brees is one of the most accurate passers to ever play professional football. Tebow is not the only quarterback who would have missed that crossing route late in the game, and it's a bit snippy to place a disproportionate amount of importance on a single pass.

More importantly, while Levin is correct in arguing that Dick LeBeau's aggressive game plan was the primary reason Tebow was able to find so many open receivers downfield, he neglects to emphasize that Tebow's skill as a runner is one of the reasons LeBeau consistently stacked the box.

Tebow will never have to be an exceptionally accurate passer to have a long and successful NFL career because unlike most quarterbacks he threatens defenses with his legs. Denver finished the regular season as the NFL’s top rushing team in part because Denver’s read option offense, a scheme that requires the quarterback be a strong runner, consistently wore down defenses over the course of four quarters. On Sunday, Tebow ran for 50 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.

Accounting for Tebow’s rushing abilities will always force defenses to commit one less defensive back to defending the passing game and therefore give Tebow more favorable downfield matchups than the prototypical NFL quarterback sees on a weekly basis.

While I don’t have any firsthand insight into LeBeau’s thinking coming into Sunday’s game, it’s reasonable to surmise that he saw Denver’s rushing attack as a threat to his defense. Allowing Denver to run the ball effectively would have given the Broncos the chance to control time of possession and wear down a defense that was playing at lung-burning altitude to which they are not accustomed. Stacking the box was LeBeau’s best option for countering Denver’s running attack and committing extra defenders to this task became even more imperative once Pittsburgh lost defensive lineman Brett Keisel and Casey Hampton to injuries.

So while Levin is correct in arguing that Pittsburgh’s defensive scheme is what allowed Tebow to briefly look like Steve Young, negating to credit Tebow’s rushing abilities—as well as those of Willis McGahee—as the impetus for implementing such a scheme shortchanges the quarterback’s contributions to the game.

Furthermore, Tebow did a fantastic job of avoiding the Pittsburgh pass rush—he scrambled out of a sack before completing a 51-yard pass to Thomas. Most quarterbacks would have gone down on that play, yielding yardage and momentum in the process. Tebow uses his primary strengths as a player—his size and agility—to get out of a tough situation and buy time for his receiver to get open down the field. Most NFL quarterbacks, including Drew Brees, would not have made that play.

That’s not to say Tebow played flawlessly. He only completed 10 of 21 passes and was helped by the exceptional play of Thomas, who torched Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor for 204 yards.

In conclusion, while Tebow took a big step forward on Sunday, it is still too early to definitively make a ruling about his abilities as a passer. Tebow could regress against the Patriots next weekend—I don’t expect the Patriots coaching staff to replicate the Steelers game plan.

It sometimes only takes Aaron Rodgers one half of football to complete as many good-looking passes as Tebow did in a yesterday’s entire game, but the young quarterback is improving, and that gives the Broncos at least a fighting chance as they head to New England.  

*Count me as a member of this crowd, though my primary interest in Tebow always had more to do with his on-the-field demeanor and off-the-field personality than his throwing motion.