With Kyle Orton placed on waivers and claimed by the Kansas City Chiefs, the keys to the Denver Broncos have been handed to Tim Tebow.
The former Florida Gators quarterback has led them to four wins in five games as a starter, although the second coming of John Elway he most certainly isn’t. To be fair to Tebow, Elway wasn’t pretty in his first year either and he had three great receivers to throw to. Tebow doesn’t have that luxury.
Whatever the arguments about Tebow’s throwing motion, there are several things that can’t be contested. He continues to be a winner and a leader – and he does not give the ball away, suffering an interception on just 1.9 per cent of his pass attempts.
Denver are surging. They sit a game behind the Oakland Raiders in the AFC West and have the chance to make a big statement when they travel to San Diego on Sunday.
The Chargers are like those irritating people you meet who have bags of talent but for whatever reason they don’t apply themselves.
They keep making dumb mistakes and have won just four games this season, losing their last five since winning 29-24 in Denver on October 9.
San Diego are rightly in panic mode with their playoff hopes dangling on thread, but at least Norv Turner has a quarterback in Phillip Rivers in whom he believes.
The same cannot be said for Broncos GM Elway, who was guarded when asked if Tebow was the Broncos’ franchise quarterback.
Elway said: “It’s hard to say if Tim Tebow is absolutely that guy. We’re very hopeful that he is.”
It is far from a glowing reference, coming as it did a week after head coach John Fox, who has done so well tweaking the offense to fit Tebow’s skill-set, exclaimed: “If we were trying to run a regular offense, he’d be screwed.”
Despite having his faith to fall back on, those kind of remarks from your bosses are going to hurt. No.15 is only human.
Fox and Elway are not showing the youngster enough respect.
Perhaps they should take note of Taylor Swift, who says: ‘When you’re fifteen and someone tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them’.
As for the game itself, the Chargers may be a very ordinary outfit, but they are in the last chance saloon and only the gun-slinging mentality of Rivers is going to keep them from disintegrating.
Denver’s defence has played some great football over the past month, but their pass defence is still their weak link and the Chargers can exploit it. Back them to get back to winning ways.
Washington head coach Mike Shanahan needs no reminding of this old saying: If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one quarterback.
The decision not to draft or trade for a passer in pre-season has meant that the un-dynamic duo of Rex Grossman and John Beck have not managed a win between them in the past six outings.
Injuries on the offensive side of the ball have not helped and the Redskins are one broken ankle away from putting the NFL equivalent of Dan Quayle on the field.
Yet there were signs of life against Dallas last weekend.
Indeed, Washington looked a little unfortunate not to have beaten their NFC East rivals, and no-one will convince me that Graham Gano’s overtime game-winning field goal attempt sailed wide right. It looked good. So good, it could have been mistaken for a Redskins’ cheerleader.
DC’s finest should have had a fourth win and would be just two games behind the New York Giants in the division.
As it is, the Redskins are now three games behind both the Giants and Dallas heading into Week 12 after that (alleged) missed kick, and Shanahan will do well to avoid his worst season in 16 years as an NFL head coach (he’s never had a team below 6-10).
However, as long as they don’t suffer a let-down following that big division clash, Washington might be able to end the rot – their longest losing streak in 13 years – in Seattle on Sunday.
Historically, the Redskins have a decent regular-season record when travelling across country to Seattle, winning five and losing once (in 1998). They are unbeaten in three November trips to the Emerald City including a 20-17 success three years ago.
The Seahawks have not won three consecutive games for four years and after beating Baltimore and St Louis, conceding a combined 24 points, they will fancy their chances against the Redskins who are 1-4 on the road (which included losses to Carolina, Miami and a shutout defeat by Buffalo – hardly the murderer’s row of the NFL).
Yet the Redskins’ defence is stout. They have lost four games by a one-score margin and injured offensive players like wide receiver Santana Moss are starting to return.
While both offensive lines will struggle and a low-scoring contest is anticipated, the Redskins are not a bad team, just one in need of a confidence boost. Perhaps they got it against Dallas and they will turn the corner in the city famed for coffee, computers and rain.
After a 5-2 start, Buffalo have suffered three crushing defeats, at home to the New York Jets and on the road in Dallas and Miami, and have been outscored 106-26 in those contests. Depleted by injuries along their defensive front seven, they have had a problem anchoring their defensive line and have been exploited.
The Jets are also in a pickle after losing two successive games to dent their hopes of making the playoffs.
The main reason the Jets are struggling is their offense and in particular quarterback Mark Sanchez, who has a mediocre 73.3 passer rating in November.
Having failed to pick apart the poor pass defences of Denver and New England, there are many in New York wondering if he will ever develop into the elite quarterback that his high draft pick warranted.
Buffalo’s pass defence is tail-spinning to the floor of the NFL but this is a must-win for both teams and also a divisional rivalry. It could be closer than layers are anticipating so it is tempting to take the Bills with the points.
Suggestions:
Washington +4
Buffalo +9
San Diego -6.5
Follow Simon Milham on Twitter: @simonmilham
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
Bet via BETDAQ mobile below
