This blog is primarily about science and current events, politics being the most common. But every now and then something happens to my favorite sports teams that elicits comments. My favorite team is the Denver Broncos and they pulled off a stunning upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday.

The legend of Tim Tebow is growing. It is growing in Denver and around the world. On CBS Sports, I read that tweets about Tebow were hot all over the world after the Broncos won the game. That is star power. I don’t believe that there is anyone else in the NFL that has the star power that Tim Tebow has right now. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are famous and are great players. But, they do not electrify the public like Tim Tebow. I am not saying Tebow is anywhere near the player that Brady or Manning are. I am just saying that people like watching Tim Tebow play football.

The game yesterday was very exciting. Tebow finally put up numbers that would put him in the elite group, if he put them up every week. To recap the game, it started out bad for the Broncos. The Steelers held them to 8 yards from scrimmage in the first quarter and led 6-0. In the second quarter, the Broncos generally lose leads and fall behind. Not this week, they scored 20 points on a touchdown pass and touchdown run by Tebow, plus two field goals. The score at the half was Broncos 20 and Steelers 6.

After halftime, things started to go the Steelers way. Early in the 3^rd quarter, Roethlisberger threw a lateral to a wide receiver. The wide receiver dropped the ball. It was recovered by Elvis Dumervil. The problem is the official thought it was a pass and blew the whistle. Had the play been allowed to stand, the Broncos would have had the ball on the Steeler 17 yard line and leading 20-6. They would have had at least a field goal and maybe a touchdown from that distance. Since the official blew the call, the Steelers took the ball and scored a touchdown to make it 20-13. The Broncos added a field goal to make it 23-13. The Steelers scored another field goal and a touchdown with little time left on the clock to tie the game at 23. The Broncos fizzled at trying to move the football. The Steelers got the ball and were moving. Elvis Dumervil caused Roethlisberger to fumble and 23 yards later the Steelers recovered. That took them way out of field goal range. They ran two more plays but got nothing.

That brought on one of the most exciting, if shortest, overtimes in NFL history. There are new rules for overtimes in playoff games. Each team gets a chance to handle the football, unless the score is a touchdown. In other words, if the defense scores a touchdown the game is over. If the offense scores a touchdown, the game is over. If the score is a field goal, the other team gets the ball after a kickoff.

This overtime did not require much of anything. Tebow took the snap and faked the ball to McGahee. He then took a couple of steps back and surveyed the field. At that time, Thomas was coming open in the middle of the field. Tebow threw a perfect strike that Thomas caught in full stride. Thomas stiff-armed the cornerback and then outran all the defenders to the end zone. The total time for the play was 11 seconds. That is the shortest overtime in the history of the NFL. At that point in time the stadium went nuts. Players were jumping up and down. Tebow did his pose to pray and then joined the festivities.

This game insured that the Broncos will not select a QB in the upcoming NFL draft. Tebow will be their QB of 2012. They need to fill some holes at Defensive Tackle and Linebacker on defense. Also a couple of their defensive players are getting a little long in the tooth, so cornerback and safety should also be on the list. The Broncos could use a running back to back up McGahee and a wide receiver or two.

But right now, the target is the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. They play this time in New England. When they played in Denver during the season, the Broncos were defeated 41-23. I predict that this game will go differently. The Broncos outplayed the Patriots for 20-25 minutes of the first game. Tim Tebow did not play particularly well. If he plays on Saturday as well as he played yesterday, we just might have a second upset. That is asking a lot of a young QB in a place like New England, but it can be done. The Tim Tebow of yesterday is a long way of the Tim Tebow of the last 3 weeks. Yesterday, he was trying to win the game. The past 3 weeks, he was trying not to lose the game. That is a huge difference and it showed.

You always play better when you are trying to win than when you are trying not to lose. The difference is the confidence the coaches showed in Tebow. The past 3 weeks, the coaches were trying to have Tebow manage the game so it was close at the end of the game. That is a philosophy of trying not to lose. Some QB’s can do that; Trent Dilfer comes to mind in that score. Most people cannot do that successfully very long.  I think we have seen the end of the trying not to lose philosophy of the Broncos. From now on it will be pedal to the metal and win.