Gun Slinger

Nick Creegan

Steelers fans cheered a week ago when they found out their team would be playing a freefalling Denver Broncos team that had lost three straight with an impotent passing game that Tim Tebow led.  

Why would the defending AFC champion Steelers have anything to worry about?

Who’s Tebow anyway? His magic ended four weeks ago.

If he couldn’t move his team against an 11^th-ranked defense in the Kansas City Chiefs, how the hell would one of the most inaccurate QBs in the NFL have any success against coordinator Dick LeBeau’s No. 1 ranked defense?

Champ Bailey would have to run back a 99-yard interception for a TD with a few seconds left in the fourth quarter, right? Or maybe while Tebow was on bended knee, Matt Prater would kick a 65-yard FG and get another win in miraculous fashion.

Well, neither of those scenarios came to pass.

Some “Tebowing” was involved at the end of the game, though. It came right after Tebow threw for 316 yards -- an average of 31 yards per throw -- and connected with Demaryius Thomas for an 80-yard, game-winning TD in overtime.

All right, wait a minute here. Time out!

Am I writing this correctly? Tebow threw for not one but two touchdowns? You mean he was actually the main X-factor for his team against the best defense in the NFL?

With a little Mile High magic and a whole lot of trigger-pulling, Tebow shredded the Steelers from the second quarter until the thrilling and odd-defying ending. He hit the best defense with three of the biggest pass pays it had allowed all season and has now brought his Broncos farther than anyone — besides Skip Bayless — could have imagined.

The key to Denver’s offensive success was its read-option threat. The Steelers were so concerned about stopping the runs of either Willis McGahee or Tebow, they left no deep coverage, which opened the field for Tebow to throw bombs and for his playmakers to come up big. He passed for 72 more yards than Ben Roethlisberger with half the attempts and half the completions.

Absurd, I know.

With some help from his defense and his playmaking wide receivers, Tebow ultimately defined this win. It appears now that Brady Quinn, the Broncos backup QB, is out of the postseason equation, and No. 15 has cemented his spot as the starter.

In the game Sunday, Tebow did even better than team vice president John Elway, a Hall of Fame quarterback, by actually winning his first playoff game against the same team Elway lost to in his playoff debut.

For the Mile High City, this was its highest moment in more than 10 years. It appears this will remain the high point unless, of course, the magic continues Saturday in Foxboro, Mass., against an old friend: New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel, the former Denver coach who drafted both Tebow and Thomas.

The Broncos are a 14-point underdog against the Patriots, the top seed in the AFC. But if you like keeping your money, don’t bet any of it against Tim Tebow.