I tried so hard to defend Timmy's honor in that fiasco, but I could not. True, Denver sucks. Really sucks. Painfully sucks. Timmy did not help his cause. He was stripped doing that long wind up, just as the detractors said. He fumbled the snap from under center, just as the detractors said. He hesitated during the reads, just as the detractors said.
Now, for the defense of Timothy Richard Tebow: he was forced to play as if he were Kyle Orton. If the Denver coaches had half a brain, they would have let him take the ball from the shotgun, and possibly roll out to avoid the rush. Seriously, the NFL pro style offense does allow for this. Honestly. What do you think Christian Ponder does when his crappy O-line fails him? He rolls out, moves the pocket, and does what he sort of did in college. I am willing to bet that if he were allowed to take the ball from shotgun and roll out, he would make things happen. Maybe his team sucks too bad to beat 5-2 Detroit, but it would probably have been a better game.
You answered most of your own criticisms and questions here E-, so I don't have to.
I mean,with all the things wrong with that team, it is absolutely absurd to reduce it to "See how badly #15 played"...but hat quite predictably is exactly how it has been played by everyone in the media from the 1st qrtr on. Just consider, tho': Tim is known as a big, strapping MOBILE guy, yet he was sacked 6 times, knocked down another 6, and chased out of the pocket 23 times! To put him in there against that team with no virtually O-line to protect him and have him take the ball under center and (as you so aptly put it) "act like Kyle Orton" would be what I'd call the stupidest possible offensive game plan--except that I don't believe it was anything BUT a purposeful attempt to knowingly expose him to exactly that abuse, by the Detroit defense AND the national sports media, in the hope that it would inevitably penetrate the Denver fan base as well. What was "stupid" as a game plan-to-win becomes a rather vicious-but-cleverly-manipulative effort to end what management sees as a problem and a dilemma (in a Machiavelian kind of way): how to get the fans off your back before getting rid of Tim Tebow.
OK, we KNOW his unique weaknesses and foibles--he has 'em, like any athlete, as he does amazingly unique strengths few others possess--and they were on display here. But they are stacking the deck in simply putting him in that situation, and in not adapting the game plan to his skill set are handing him a set of marching orders that in this case (and in a lot of the games remaining on their schedule) guaranteed the observed outcome. The only way Tim can turn the tables, short-circuit their plans and give himself a real shot at a fair chance with another team I believe is to defy their hidebound instructions: at a certain point fairly early on THROW AWAY the "game plan" and play the game his own way, drop back into the shotgun and call audibles, roll outs, keep a blocking back with him back there to help, and so on, BECOME THEIR PASSER AND THEIR RUNNER, as TT is more than capable of doing--they'll lose some, but they'll WIN some too, more than can be said for that pathetic overall display they're putting out there now--and they'll be exciting and fun to watch.
Of course, there's little chance that Tim Tebow would do that, rebel and go for himself, good and honorable young man that he is--not unless the coach at least told him that was an option "if all else failed", and THAT will NEVER happen. They don't WANT him to succeed, let alone succeed doing it his way. Elway, Fox and Co. are more than willing to sacrifice the season, their honor (if they ever had any), the team's well being and the fans' sense of hope and optimism to retain full control, and if they needed any more reason, they have the rationale that if things go badly enough they might even win the "Luck Sweepstakes" and (supposedly--who can be sure?) solve the whole QB question THAT way.
