Tim Tebow Unfairly Bashed by Media Following Denver Broncos Loss

The city of Denver was "Tebowing" all week long.

Taking a knee, legitimately, never seemed so fun.

That has all disappeared in the matter of a single football game. 

There were no last-second heroics. There were no knees to be dropped (well, Lions backup QB Shaun Hill took a knee on the final snap to run out the clock).

However, there was plenty of frustration.

The Broncos were beaten 45-10 by the Detroit Lions on Sunday and the Denver media has turned tail on last week's hero.

Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post writes:

"

(Tim) Tebow played as ineptly as any sorry excuse for a pro quarterback possibly could. He was laughably bad...Those five minutes of wonder against Miami now look like an aberration. Right here, right now, Tebow is the worst quarterback in the NFL.

"

No. 15 finished his first game as a starter this season with following stat line: 18-of-39, 172 yards, one touchdown, one interception, three fumbles (one lost) and 63 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Tebow's two costly turnovers led to two Detroit touchdowns (a 100-yard interception return for TD and a 24-yard fumble return for touchdown) and his mistakes, more than anything else, cost this team its fifth game of the season.

But did the Denver fans and media really expect Tebow to be brilliant week in and week out?

If so, shame on them.

To defend Tebow ever so slightly, the Detroit Lions are now 4-0 on the road this season. Not only do they have one of the more potent offensive attacks in the league, but their defense has been more than capable of handling opposing quarterbacks.

In those previous three road games they gave up only five touchdowns and recorded four interceptions against Josh Freeman, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo.

Tebow's one-touchdown, three-turnover, less-than-50-percent passing debacle is certainly the worst among them, but it is not like he was facing his own hapless defense. 

Lions quarterback Matt Stafford was 21-of-30 on the afternoon and threw three touchdown passes.

There isn't much to defend Tebow with, but he's certainly playing against a stacked deck, and, all things considered, he's far from the worst quarterback in the NFL right now.

Just glancing around the league we see Kevin Kolb of the Arizona Cardinals, Blaine Gabbert of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Matt Moore of the Miami Dolphins making just as many mistakes, if not more, than No. 15.

In fact (and yes, he is a rookie) Gabbert has failed to throw for more than 100 yards in each of the last two weeks. He's completing well under 50 percent of his passes (45.7) and is averaging 5.2 yards per pass.

Kolb puts up more yards, but he is far from being much better than either Tebow or Gabbert.

Tebow played poorly yesterday, no doubt it. Heck, Tebow has played poorly except for all of five minutes in first two starts this season.

However, the second-year signal caller deserves a chance to figure things out. Remember, it was the Broncos coaching staff who decided to go with Kyle Orton to start the year.

It was the Broncos coaching staff who gave all the first-team reps this summer to Orton.

It is the Broncos organization that put itself—and Tebow in this position.

Tebow deserves plenty of blame for the Week 8 loss, but it's not all on him.

Saying he's the "worst quarterback in the NFL" is not only absurd, but unjust as well.