Tim Tebow's Winning Ways and How He Got the Denver Broncos to 5-5

In football, clutch players are often hard to define. It's not like basketball where a player is considered clutch if he makes a basket at a crucial point in the game, or a baseball player who comes up with a timely hit.

Football is different.

For a player to be successful, he needs to rely on 10 other players doing their jobs well. However, what we witnessed Thursday night at Sports Authority Field at Mile High defied that logic and had me comparing Tim Tebow to some of the most clutch players in sports.

Before sitting down to write this article, I thought about how I would make my case for Tebow. After all, Tebow has only started five games this year, so the sample size is small and I needed to find a way to take the emotion out of the debate.

Tebow is one of the most polarizing sports figures we have today and when I write about Tebow, critically or complimentary, I tend to get a strong reaction. So what I decided to do is breakdown the Broncos' game-winning, 95-yard drive from Thursday night and compare it to other sports scenarios.

First, I need to set the stage by summarizing the Broncos' game-winning drive—the anatomy of the drive if you will.

The drive started on the Broncos' 5-yard line after a Jets punt. With 5:54 left in the game, Tebow and the Broncos were down by three points. Up until that point in the game, the Jets' defense had dominated the Broncos. Denver had managed just 134 total yards and their only touchdown came on a Mark Sanchez interception return for a touchdown.

On the first play of the drive, Tebow found Eddie Royal for eight yards to the Broncos 13-yard line. On second down, Tebow used his legs to get the first down, running for 15 yards to Denver's 28. Tebow followed that up with a nine-yard completion to Demaryius Thomas and then an incompletion to Thomas. With the home crowd chanting "Tebow," the former Heisman Trophy winner took a play from his Florida Gators' playbook and rumbled for seven yards behind his right guard. It was another first down for Denver.

At this point in the drive the Broncos had established momentum and Tebow had accounted for all their yards, using both his arm and his legs. Nearing midfield, Tebow moved right and scrambled for nine yards to the Jets' 47. After a three-yard scamper by Tebow for the first down, he missed on a pass to Thomas. Despite the errant throw, you still got the feeling Tebow was going to pull this off.

On the next play, Tebow stared down one of the best pass defenses in the league and delivered a pass to tight end Dante Rosario. The throw wasn't pretty, but it advanced the Broncos to New York's 26.

Well within Matt Prather's field-goal range, the Broncos' play-calling turned conservative. A handoff to Lance Ball up the middle gained three yards. They followed that up with a Tebow sneak up the middle for another three yards. It was clear the Broncos were not going to risk a game-tying field-goal attempt by having Tebow throw in this situation.

But like so many clutch players have done before him, on 3rd-and-4 and with 1:06 left in the game, Tebow took it upon himself to lead his team to victory. His 20-yard touchdown run that started around the left end and included a broken tackle at the 7-yard line gave the Broncos a 16-13 lead and left his critics silenced.

Tebow waited until the game was on the line and saved his best for last. Before that game-winning drive, Tebow had just 11 yards rushing and 69 yards passing for a total of 80 yards. He eclipsed that offensive output on the most important drive of the night with 57 yards rushing and 35 yards passing.

What Tebow did on Thursday night, accounting for 92 of the team's 95 yards on the game-winning drive, should be compared to Kobe Bryant carrying the Los Angeles Lakers in the fourth quarter or Albert Pujols slugging the St. Louis Cardinals to victory in the late innings.

With that said, please do not think I'm comparing Tebow to Bryant or Pujols, I'm not. I'm simply saying that when you take the emotion out of the Tebow debate and look at the facts, what he did Thursday night was very impressive.

His game isn't always pretty, in fact, most of the time it's ugly, but his ability to lead has made me a fan. And don't look now, but Tebow is 4-1 as a starter this year for the Broncos.