The season was lost early in Denver this year, but on Sunday the Broncos went about salvaging something from the two seasons that not only cost Josh McDaniels his job, but also cost the roster many of its best players and the franchise some respect.
Enter Tim Tebow, who used to wear references to Scripture in his eye black. On Sunday he did look like a football savior for a beleaguered franchise. A two-game audition to be an N.F.L. starting quarterback is less time than an “American Idol” contestant gets. But if nothing else, Tebow, the rookie with the imperfect motion and the propensity for running, is making it difficult for the next Broncos coach to put him on the bench.
Tebow threw for 308 yards, more than any quarterback in Broncos history making his first home start, including John Elway. He directed the Broncos back from a 17-0 deficit, he threw for a touchdown and he ran for another. The Houston Texans have perhaps the most embarrassing defense in the league, and Tebow’s passing stats were skewed by screen pass after screen pass — an effort by the Broncos to get the ball out of Tebow’s hands quickly — but Tebow deserves credit for punishing a bad defense and for imparting on the Broncos the ineffable quality he brought to the Florida Gators.
“He is exactly what you thought coming out of college,” Houston Coach Gary Kubiak said. “He is a winner.”
Tebow’s most important stat might be that there were just 5,700 no-shows for an entirely meaningless game at Invesco Field, where swaths of empty seats had spread like a virus as this season disintegrated. That’s a testament to Tebow’s drawing power, with more to come Sunday against San Diego. The men who will choose Denver’s next coach will have to weigh what level of commitment they want to make to Tebow — but given that he is a first-round draft pick, it is likely to be considerable, even with McDaniels gone.
The Broncos’ interviews will undoubtedly include detailed questions about what the candidates will do to make Tebow a franchise quarterback. His throwing motion is still too elongated. He needs more help reading defenses. Running as much as he does will eventually take a physical toll, and almost everybody thinks that if Tebow is to be a long-term quarterback, he will have to stop scrambling.
“I don’t know that we have a whole lot more data than we had a year ago,” said the former Baltimore coach Brian Billick, now an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network. “You’ve got a new guy coming in — do they take someone who will say ‘Yes, Tim Tebow will play’? If not, then where are you? Is that a wasted first-round pick? Nobody who they bring in is going to take ownership of Tim Tebow any more than Ken Whisenhunt had to take ownership of Matt Leinart.”
After halftime Sunday, the Broncos started throwing downfield more, igniting the comeback. That might not have worked against a better defense, but it was impossible to miss that the existing coaching staff was growing more confident in Tebow.
The victory meant the Broncos lost any chance at the first overall draft pick, and the accompanying possibility of selecting Stanford’s Andrew Luck, if he decides to enter the draft. Luck is the anti-Tebow, polished and pro-ready. But the Broncos will most likely cast their lot with Tebow, at least for next season. McDaniels left the roster in shambles, sending many of the Broncos’ best players elsewhere, but he was an astute offensive mind. And drafting Tebow might turn out to be a promising parting gift.
“I think he’s a born leader,” Broncos running back Correll Buckhalter said. “He has a lot of energy out there on the field and we’re going to rally behind him.”
Singletary Joins Firing Line
Mike Singletary’s sideline shouting match with quarterback Troy Smith on Sunday was the perfect bookend to his tenure with San Francisco, which began with Singletary’s dropping his pants in the locker room to make a point during his first game as head coach two years ago. It also matched a shouting exchange earlier this season with quarterback Alex Smith. Finally, the 49ers’ chief executive Jed York fired Singletary late Sunday, a curious bit of timing because everybody knew the move was coming at the end of the season.
York said that money was no object in hiring a replacement — paging Jon Gruden — and that the Niners need a quarterback. Deep breaths, Jed. First, you need a general manager who can find a suitable head coach. For all the glamour Bill Walsh and Joe Montana lent the Niners, theirs will not even be the best available opening this off-season.
If Gary Kubiak — now on a four-game losing streak — is fired in Houston, the Texans will have their pick of top candidates because quarterback Matt Schaub is in place. Singletary’s hiring was a fiasco. He never tempered the high-voltage passion that made him a brilliant player and an impressive public speaker, and he never indicated any acumen with football strategy. His herky-jerky treatment of quarterbacks was just one indication that Singletary had no long-term vision beyond screaming, “I want winners!”
But remember when everyone thought the impending lockout would put a halt to coach firings? Four have been fired in season, in a league where that rarely happens. The late-season collapses could cost Kubiak and perhaps Miami’s Tony Sparano their jobs. Home losses to Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo — and the empty seats that followed — left the Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross seething, and his brief comments Sunday to The Miami Herald indicated Sparano could be a late addition to the coaching unemployment line, especially with his patron, Bill Parcells, out of the building. ’Tis the season.
Around the League
Where have you gone, Kurt Warner? Warner retired after last season and took the Cardinals’ passing offense with him. The Cardinals have just nine passing touchdowns this season — and yes, Larry Fitzgerald is still on the team — but they do have 12 returns for touchdowns. That’s one short of the N.F.L. record. It leaves a lingering question: Just how bad was Matt Leinart that the Cardinals thought he couldn’t help them?
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