NFL Picks Week 11: Denver's New Tebow-Styled Offense Makes Jets Game Watchable

The New York Jets are traveling to Denver where they will face a surprisingly hot Tim Tebow-led Broncos team. The Broncos have won three of four since they went to Tebow at quarterback and are now just a game out of first place in the AFC West.

The resurgence of a team is always reason enough to get some fans interested, but tonight we will get to watch a team that not only made a resurgence, but completely transformed. After winning the first game of the Tebow Experiment in overtime, but in very ugly fashion, concerns immediately came to the surface about whether or not Tebow could play. Well, the next game the same inefficient Tebow was on the field and the Broncos lost by five touchdowns.

Right when the entire world of sports analysts were drilling Tebow and the Broncos the hardest is when the Broncos made a change, but not to their quarterback. They just changed the play-calling around him. 

The Broncos have eliminated the chances of Tebow's below average accuracy to hurt them by running the ball 94 times to only 30 pass attempts over the past two games.  The high volume of running plays allows them to control the game clock, so the longer they can sustain drives the less their opponent can have the ball. The Broncos had not won time of possession since Week 2 when Tebow took over, but now have held the ball longer in each of his starts.

The running game in the win over Kansas City was effective enough to keep John Fox from calling many pass plays as just eight passes were thrown by Tebow. The lack of consistency in the passing game may hurt Tebow, who completed a season low 25 percent of his passes last week, but it has been very good for the team.

The Broncos will face a once dominant Jets defense tonight that still has the makings of a great group. They will get their toughest test yet from a defensive group and will be without running back Knowshon Moreno and have a banged up Willis McGahee. They do have Lance Ball who carried the ball 30 times a week ago and we all know Tebow himself is ready to carry some of the load.

With a thin backfield already and playing against a hard-hitting defense, it will be interesting to see how the Broncos will fare if they were to choose to run 55 times to eight passes again in this one. Sooner or later, Tebow will get his accuracy down. When he does, the play-action pass would be deadly from an offense that has run the ball as much as Denver. Who knows? Maybe we'll see the immergence of a passing game tonight. 

It is not likely, though, and honestly, the unorthodox amount of runs from Denver's offense makes this game different enough to be enjoyable. 

If they are able to control the ball in this game, and once again win the time of possession battle, they have a legitimate shot to be 5-5. The Jets offense has not been stellar this season and has come with a lot of questions of its own. It would really hurt Mark Sanchez if he were taking long breaks between drives which has been what the Broncos were able to do in their last two games. 

Tebow and the Broncos may be underdogs tonight, but they hold the games outcome in their hands if they can run the ball as effectively as the past two weeks. What a story it would be if one of the most unheralded quarterbacks ever were to start out with a 4-1 record.  And would we even watch this game if the Broncos were 1-8 and throwing the ball 40 times with Tim Tebow?  Probably not. 

The truth is a poor team who was backed against a wall to start Tim Tebow did so, and in doing so turned the corner on its season with a completely new way of playing football.  Running the ball to control the clock and get first downs without turning the ball over sounds simple, but the Broncos are the only team doing it to the extreme.