Congrats to Robert Griffin on the Heisman!!
How in the world can you not believe in this guy? It is obvious that he is a winner and will do whatever it takes. I would take him over Colt McCoy any day. You can cry all you want that McCoy has nothing to work with. Really? Tebow does? When it comes down to it, Tebow has nothing to work with talent wise either. He just makes everybody around him better. A trait that very few athletes have these days.
Another stunning Tebowmania chapter
By Bill Williamson
DENVER -- Sorry Charles Barkley, but this Tim Tebow thing isn’t going anywhere.
For those of you who are like Barkley and are burned out by Tebowmania, we send our deepest regrets. It has reached a new level. Yeah, we know Tebowmania trends upward weekly. That’s why it’s rivaling the 13-0 Green Bay Packers as the story of the NFL season.
And I’m getting the feeling Tebowmania may stick around for the next, oh, 10 to 12 years. After watching Tebow and the Denver Broncos score 13 points after being shut out for the first 57 minutes, 45 seconds of the game Sunday to beat the Chicago Bears 13-10 in overtime, how can anyone honestly say Tebow is nothing more than a temporary fix?
Hours after ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that Denver will likely decide to move forward with Tebow as its quarterback in 2012 if he leads it into the playoffs, the Tebow train kept on moving. If we are ranking Tebow's victories, Sunday’s may have been the most stunning. But that’s like picking your favorite Rolling Stones song. There are so many classics to choose from.
The victory -- combined with a 46-16 Oakland loss at Green Bay -- gave Denver sole possession of first place in the AFC West at 8-5. The Broncos lead Oakland by one game with three games to go. Denver also owns the current tiebreaker over the Raiders. At this point, it looks like Denver may be headed to the postseason for the first time in six years either as a division winner or wild-card entry. If Denver beats Kansas City at home in Week 17, the Raiders will have to finish with a better record than the Broncos to win the division because of tiebreaker reasons.
Denver is 7-1 with Tebow as its starter and has won six straight games. It is 3-0 in overtime with Tebow as its quarterback and it has won five games late with Tebow playing. Denver has trailed in the fourth quarter in all of its past four games.
The Bears led 10-0 until Denver scored 10 points in two frenzied drives in the final 2:15 of regulation and then won it with 8:40 remaining in overtime on a 51-yard field goal by Matt Prater.
Denver punted eight times before it scored. Tebow, who was the victim of six dropped passes in the first three quarters, completed three passes (all in the first quarter) before the fourth quarter. He had 18 of his 21 completions in the fourth quarter and overtime. He was 7-of-7 on pass attempts on the Broncos’ touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Tebow was 4-for-4 with a touchdown pass when he threw outside of the pocket in the fourth quarter and overtime Sunday. He was 3-of-7 with an interception prior to the fourth quarter.
“His eyes light up when the pressure is on,” Denver receiver Eric Decker said of Tebow.
Still, several members of the Chicago defense were not overly impressed by Tebow, who completed 21 of 40 passes for 236 yards. He had 49 yards rushing on 12 attempts.
“He’s a good running back,” said Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher when asked his thoughts on Tebow after the game. Typically, Tebow was not bothered by the shot. “Coming from a really good player, that means a lot,” the unflappable Tebow said.
Added Chicago defensive end Julius Peppers: “It wasn’t anything special that he did.”
Despite those less-than-stellar assessments of Tebow, there is no doubt Denver is buying into Tebow.
“He’s huge,” Broncos coach John Fox said of his young quarterback.
Mortensen’s report makes complete sense. There is little chance Denver can dump what it has going with Tebow. First of all, if Denver makes the playoffs and tries to make a switch, fans will erupt.
As long as the Broncos continue to see Tebow making strides as a passer, they will be more than comfortable moving forward with him. The fact that he threw the ball 40 times Sunday is a sign the coaching staff is getting comfortable with him.
John Elway recently told Fox Sports that he plans to work with Tebow in the offseason, particularly focusing on his footwork. Remember, Tebow missed an offseason because of the lockout. This is a player who is improving quickly. An offseason of working with his coaches and Elway will help immensely.
At the present, though, the focus is on the final three games, beginning next week when Bill Belichick gets his crack at putting Tebowmania in its place. Still, Tebow and his teammates -- Denver continued to play strong defense Sunday -- have a good thing going with no signs of it slowing down.
“I think we’re rewriting the book on 'keep fighting,’” Fox said. “Our guys never blink.”
Nor does Tebowmania.
My problem with the whole Sullinger thing is if you are hurt, then fine, I understand. Be smart enough not to be on the bench jumping up and down and acting like there is nothing wrong with your body. Kind of defeats the purpose since your teammates are doing battle and you are looking on eating a hot dog. Don't give me the "if it was a tournament game he would of been in their" crap either. Winners play at all times, at all costs. A true competitior would never sit a game when they know they can play.
First Thoughts From a 78-67 Loss at Kansas
By Tony Gerdeman
First Thought - Ohio State is littered with very good players, but when Jared Sullinger is on the court, most everybody is a complementary piece to a much larger puzzle. That's not a knock on them, it just means that they are beneficiaries of Sullinger's gravitational pull on opposing defenses.
Without that gravitational pull, however, each of them finds themselves floating around out in space, and it can sometimes take a while for them to get re-oriented.
For a guy like Deshaun Thomas who will look for offense no matter his orientation, it's not such a huge deal. For a guy like William Buford, however, it's completely different.
Buford has made himself a first-round NBA draft pick because of his jumper. When there's no collapsing defense down low to allow open looks, Buford then has to find shots on his own. He wasn't able to do this until the game was no longer in doubt.
His inability to adjust quicker made things tougher for everybody in the Scarlet and Gray. It even made Aaron Craft force some things on offense that were probably ill-advised.
They were a team looking for an identity, and Buford was looking right along with everyone else. Next time this happens, they'll have a better idea of where to look
Reliant Thought - Maybe after Saturday, I can finally move beyond not knowing what to expect from Deshaun Thomas in big games. He scored 18 against Duke and 19 against Kansas, and in both games, the opponents had very little answer for him.
I will always expect him to miss his first three-pointer long, but it's no longer fair for me to expect him to disappear for long stretches when his offense is lacking, because that's just not who he is anymore. That's not to say it won't happen again, but just that I shouldn't expect it to happen.
Thomas is putting the ball on the floor each game, he's passing up good looks for better ones, and he improves each time out on defense. That's not a player that I should worry about. That's a player that I should start expecting performance from. From now on, I will.
Fresh Thought - I love the fact that Amir Williams played meaningful minutes in a game like this, and he wasn't out of place doing it.
Williams got fifteen good minutes and pulled down three offensive rebounds. He also threw down a nasty dunk with absolutely zero hesitation.
There is a place in this rotation for Williams, especially as Deshaun Thomas continues to improve his game and become more of an actual small forward.
He's still raw, but that's not rare for 6'9" freshmen. The Big Ten is going to be a tremendous grind this season, and there will be times where Williams can come in and actually contribute.
He can't just occupy minutes, however, he has to make something happen with them.
Saturday's game helped him in this regard for the future. I would like this to mean more minutes down the road for him this season, but it won't.
Losing Thought - Before the game, I tweeted that this was a no-lose situation for the Buckeyes because a loss without Sullinger would be forgiven, and a win would be lauded as some form of miracle.
A win would have been nice for Ohio State, but they impressed nearly as many people just for the way they stayed in it. But give credit to Kansas as well. They kept the Buckeyes at arm's length and any time the game got to within three points, the Jayhawks would respond with three or four points of their own.
While this game wasn't indicative of the real Ohio State Buckeyes, it was indicative of the heart that every one of them possesses.
Defensive Thought - While it was a blow to the Buckeyes having Jared Sullinger out of the lineup, I don't know how that explains Kansas shooting 65.2% from the field in the first half.
It's not like Sullinger would have been at the top of the key keeping Tyshawn Taylor from driving and dishing for one of his thirteen assists, and he wasn't the one who would have been rotating over to keep Elijah Johnson from going 5-7 from behind the three-point line. (It was doubly-worse that most of Johnson's threes seem to be of the dagger variety.)
It's okay to be a bit worried if a teammate the caliber of Sullinger is not going to be playing, but it should never affect your ability to close out on a shot, or keep the ball in front of you.
So while we're all chalking this loss up to the fact that Sullinger was in church clothes, let's not forget that Kansas scored when they wanted to, and most especially when they needed to. That is why they won.
Final Thought - During practices, every team around the nation has "situations" that they are put in to simulate what might happen down the road. Saturday was a two-hour situational practice for the Buckeyes, and they better make it count in the months to come.
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