Wow, after what had transpired for most of the game, I never expected that outcome.........although, I shouldn't have been too surprised, considering.
Well, he did it again. My question is whether or not their D is actually this good. They kept the Jets in check (but Sanchez isn't great and they were down to I think their 3rd string RB) and did the same to the Cheifs (who also aren't great). If their defense can keep it within a TD late in the game, they'll always have a chance.
Zags, be sure to listen to the Brick, tonight. He's gonna rave! Ironically, J.T. is a huge Raiders fan......actually, works for them some.
I will have my headphones in at work. I love listening to JT when he's really spirited about something.
I just watched the play again. Why did they blitz so many guys? Tebow doesn't turn the ball over much so the most they could have gained was a 5 or 6 yard sack, which would have still been within FG range (I think). Obviously we saw what they stood to lose on the play.
Pretty easy to question the strategy after we know it failed. The thing is if you don't blitz Tebow he would generally be able to avoid a normal pass rush and then he scrambles for the first down. Last year Vick was killing everyone until defenses realized that blitzing him was overwhelming and wouldn't give him the opportunity to out juke individual defenders.
Yes there D has been killing it lately. They were one of the worst defenses in the league last year so its very surprising to see them doing this good. I'm very curious as well to see how they perform in their next few games. Denver's D didn't play that well against the Raiders, but the Broncos offense was able to rack up many more points that week and get the win. So I suppose if the Broncos have to play a team with a good offense they can get scored on, and if the opponent also has a better defense then the Raiders they may struggle to put up points. That could be a tough game to win and most likely end in a Broncos loss. But generally every team is going to struggle to win against an opponent with a great offense and a good defense as that should be an elite team.
Of course it's easy to question after the fact, but all you hear on TV is how Tebow is best when forced to just be a play maker. If you don't blitz, you force him to complete the pass (if it is a pass play) or if it is a draw (or option/etc)), your LBs are more ready for it. He may have still won it, but I was just saying in that situation, the risk wasn't worth the potential reward.
A football assistant coach I know at the high school here is always screaming about that. He's always yelling "why would you ever blitz the guy?"
Watching ESPN now, apparently 73% of the game (prior to the last drive) the Jets were in base defense. On that last drive, all but 1 play was in nickel. That said, being down a 1 score with 4 minutes to go (he's works too slow right now for a real 2 minute offence), I'd rather than Tebow than a lot of other QBs in the league.
The thing is the Broncos also changed their offense on that final drive. Up to that point they had RB’s in the backfield and were content to play a grind it out field position game. For the final drive they emptied the backfield and went with 4 or 5 wideouts. Tebow is not an accurate passer, but if the Jets had left their base defense in you’d have a fast WR being guarded in single coverage by a slow linebacker. With four downs to work with Tebow has a great chance of moving the chains, so I can understand having 1 extra DB in the game. But with the field spread out Tebow was able to scramble for huge gains. I really think that final drive was more of an indication of how difficult it is to stop a great scrambler in a hurry up offense when they spread the field; more so then the failures of the Jets D.
Tebow has a looooooooong way to go. However, when it's all said and done, I'll wager he has a better career than, both, Sanchez and Leinart.