Tim Tebow Keeps Denver Broncos Winning and It Doesn't Matter How

If one of Tim Tebow's acolytes would have made me a wager five weeks ago that the Denver Broncos would win four out of five with their guy starting at quarterback, I'd have jumped all over that action.

Not that, you know, any of his true believers would actually gamble—because it's a sin and all that—but you get my point.

The Denver Broncos beat the New York Jets 17-13 on Thursday night.

Part of the reason why is the so-called "conventional" quarterback opposing Tebow in the game, New York's Mark Sanchez, made a horrible decision with the football deep in his own end of the field and threw a game-changing interception that was returned 26 yards for a touchdown by Denver cornerback Andre' Goodman.

Another part of the reason is that the so-called "unconventional" quarterback in the game, Tebow, got the ball back with a little less than six minutes to go, trailing by three points and 95 yards from the end zone.

Ninety-five yards? The other end of the field might as well have been on Jupiter, given how bad the Bronco offense had looked for most of the night.

In 54 minutes, Denver's offense had mustered only 134 yards. Now, they were going to take it the 60 or 65 yards necessary to set up a potential game-tying field goal?

No, no they weren't.

Tebow, who had accounted for 80 yards (69 passing, 11 rushing) on Denver's first 11 drives, put the offense on his back and away the Broncos went. He accounted for 92 of the 95 yards Denver moved, completing three-of-five passes for 35 yards and running six times for 57 more, including a nifty scramble for the final 20 yards to put the Broncos ahead with 58 seconds left.

Written off for dead after a 1-4 start with Kyle Orton at quarterback, the Broncos are now 4-1 with Tebow at the helm. Denver trails the division-leading Oakland Raiders by a half-game.

That's right: If the Raiders lose to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in Minneapolis, the Fighting Tebows will be tied for the lead in the AFC West.

So where does that leave us?

I've been a harsh critic of Tebow. I'm not wavering on my stance that Tebow might be the worst quarterback in the NFL, with "worst" defined by things such as pocket presence and his ability to make simple throws that any average NFL quarterback is expected to make. 

Much has been made of Tebow's poor throwing mechanics and I've been critical of his throwing motion as well, because he doesn't always seem to be able to get the ball from Point A to Point B.

But here's the thing: Other quarterbacks have been successful with throwing motions that could kindly be described as "unconventional."

Bernie Kosar won a lot of games in the 1980s and 1990s with his goofy-looking sidearm flick. Brett Favre had a tendency at times to fall off onto his back foot and heave, and it turned out OK for him, if I recall.

Fran Tarkenton ran around like a madman for much of his career, a career that wound up with him retiring as the holder of most of the major career quarterbacking records, and earned him a spot in Canton.

On the other hand, a lot of quarterbacks have come into the league with teaching-video quality throwing mechanics.

They just couldn't win.

Jeff George had a great arm and absolutely zero intangibles. Ryan Leaf was once thought of in the same sentence with Peyton Manning. Tebow has as many wins (four) in the last five weeks as Leaf had in his entire NFL career after being taken No. 2 overall in 1998.

JaMarcus Russell was a No. 1 overall draft pick in 2007, in part because he dazzled talent evaluators with the raw strength of his arm. But Russell had little feel for the game, even less work ethic and somehow managed to travel the previously unheard of path from top overall pick, to out of football in three short years.

Talent evaluation has become so much about the so-called "measurables," as if somehow being able to vertically leap 35 inches from a standing start will translate into winning football games. 

Because that is ultimately how a quarterback is judged, by wins and losses. Nothing else really matters in the end. 

So while Tim Tebow may look awful for long stretches of games, there is an inescapable beauty to his performance so far this season: It's called a 4-1 record as a starter.

No "measurable" is more relevant than that.