Tim Tebow vs. Kyle Orton: Who Ya Got Now?

How the tables have turned. 

Tim Tebow has been on top of the professional football world for the past few weeks, compiling a 7-1 record heading in to a big matchup yesterday with the New England Patriots. Tebow was the hot-button topic and was headlining every sports talk show across the country. 

Can he keep winning? Is he improving? What does it take to stop Tebow?

Tim Tebow was heading in to Sunday's matchup against New England with some people predicting that he would outplay Tom Brady, one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.

Meanwhile in Kansas City, Romeo Crennel was taking over as the head coach of the Chiefs, and his first act as leader was to make former Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton his starter. Both new faces had the tall task of leading the Chiefs in to a matchup against the undefeated Green Bay Packers. 

The Chiefs were expected to be just another victim for Aaron Rodgers and that high-powered Packer offense. They were looked at more as the Packers' 14th win rather than an actual opponent. 

Then, on Sunday afternoon, we were reminded why we play the games.

Kyle Orton led the Chiefs to a 19-14 victory, going 23-of-31 with 299 passing yards against the Packers. He played exactly the way Kansas City needed him to play in order to beat the Packers, and he statistically outplayed the league's runaway favorite for MVP. 

His performance has people calling for Romeo Crennel to stay on as the permanent head coach. Orton went from being a laughing stock in Denver to a hero in Kansas City. 

Later on in the afternoon, we saw Tim Tebow have a very inconsistent performance. He completed 50 percent of his passes for 194 yards and also ran for 93 yards with two touchdowns. Statistically, it was one of Tebow's best games of the year. However, the Broncos lost to the Patriots 41-23.

While Tebow still showed flashes of his great playmaking ability and his miracle recoveries, he also put on display some horrible mistakes, like taking a 29-yard loss on a sack towards the end of the game. We also saw him stripped on a sack and miss a few easy completions. 

This is simply what you're going to get with Tim Tebow. However, when he is putting up wins, it is easy to overlook the flaws. 

The question that is asked now is, would you rather have Kyle Orton or Tim Tebow?

Orton is certainly one of the heroes of Sunday's games and will have a great week knowing he helped end the Packers' bid for an undefeated season. However, he is still Kyle Orton.

Tim Tebow still played an excellent game against the Patriots. New England was easily the toughest matchup he has had this year as the Broncos' starter, and I don't think it was fair to expect that he would outgun Tom Brady.

In fact, I would put most of the blame for the loss on the shoulders of the Broncos defense. They made some very silly penalties and were not able to make the stops to keep Denver in the game. 

Kyle Orton only put up one win for the Broncos, and that was against the Bengals in Week 2. It was certainly a big win, but we can't ignore the rest of his losses. 

The roller coaster that is public opinion will certainly be prepared to criticize Tebow this week and claim that "Tebow Time" is over. At the same time, they'll question whether the Broncos should have ever let go of Kyle Orton after one big victory. 

The reality is that Tim Tebow is the better quarterback for the future. The Denver Broncos are still lined up to win the AFC West, and that will be with Tebow as their starter.

It is easy to jump off the bandwagon after one loss, but let's not lose perspective. 

"Tebow Time" isn't quite over yet.