Christmas Miracle

Stop it. Please just let it stop. For the love of God, let it stop!

If this is the last Tim Tebow post I will ever write, it's still come way too late.

Look, the guy is a great motivator, a positive influence in the league, and has great hair despite wearing a helmet all day. Seriously, I take a nap and it looks like I just got roughed up.

The sustainability of the Tebow-led Broncos is just not there.

If I'm a Broncos fan right now, I'm loving life, don't get me wrong. But I have to know a great gimmick when I see one. Back in 2008, the Miami Dolphins had a great gimmick and it led them to the playoffs. They played one game and were promptly dispatched and have not been back since.

That's because they played the Ravens and they had a GREAT defense and a smart, efficient offense. Miami had the Wild Cat, which essentially could end in about three ways: 1) Ronnie Brown runs to the left, 2) Ronnie Brown hands it off to Ricky Williams for a sweep to the left, or 3) Ronnie Brown fakes to the left and throws it to the the tight end. That's about it.

At first, when the Wild Cat was unveiled on the New England Patriots, it looked as if this was the next great thing in football. The Miami juggernaut had been unleashed! They destroyed the hapless Patriots and Belichick stood on the sidelines with a "What the hell was that?" look on his face.

I've seen that look seven times now this year on the faces of the Broncos opponents. The way that Tebow guides his offense is eerily similar to how the Dolphins approached their games in 2008.

Notice I keep talking about 2008. This is 2011. We don't do the Wild Cat anymore because there is video tape, and there's meetings, and practices, and game plans, and eventually you learn how to defend what was previously unstoppable. You eventually realize, we can blitz corners to defend the outside run and have a linebacker drop back into coverage on the tight end, because it's a TIGHT END! There's the death of the Wild Cat in a nutshell.

The Tebow-led structure will eventually hit it's buzz-saw and when it happens, it won't be pretty. The majority wants Tebow to succeed and often perpetuates his faith and nature to football for some reason. It's especially bad here in Florida. Every time I see another Broncos 15 jersey I think to myself, "Well, that guy's about to have an eye opening."

The problem with having a gimmick-run offense is that you've committed. You have no room for adaptation and that's very dangerous when you consider that defenses are always changing.

The "Here's what we do and just try and stop us!" schtick works right up to the minute that you get stopped. Now what?

The Broncos play the New England Patriots next. Tom Brady is looking to crochet himself another Division Title Sweater for the holidays and will unleash the dogs of war on poor Tebow.

Now with that said, Denver might win this game. The Pats don't have a great defense and rely on an a high octane offense to win their games. Denver's defense has played unbelievably well in the Tebow stretch. If it's close in the end, who knows? Tebow might eke out another one.

Don't get comfortable though. All good things must come to a smashing and bloody end.

Prediction: New England 24, Denver 13.

Quote: "Screw you, Matt Prater. I won't forget what you did to UCF." - Me, still very bitter towards the Denver kicker.