First things first: Kyle Orton looked excellent on Saturday night once again.
He led the Broncos to a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter with two long touchdown drives against Seattle. He averaged more than 10 yards-per-attempt and showed terrific accuracy often fitting the ball into tight windows. Orton is ready for the season.
Now on to the main story: The backups!
This time around, it was Tim Tebow that kept Brady Quinn watching on the sideline. It was a mixed performance with good, bad, and a game-winning field goal mixed in.
Tebow directed five drives that led to six points, including the winning three. He fumbled twice, but one of those fumbles was on a bad center shotgun snap. He took three sacks, but made a number of big plays with his arm and his feet. (He finished 6-of-11 for 93 yards and ran for 24 yards.)
There were plenty of exciting plays and plenty to work on. More than once Tebow took too long to make decisions. There was a broken play or two. Sacks happened. More than once, Tebow escaped pressure to make something out of nothing.
While the offense stagnated overall with Tebow, he did lead them on a game-winning 50-yard drive with 1:13 left.
Essentially, Tebow’s detractors will find enough material to criticize here. Tebow’s supporters will say this proves he’s a “gamer.”
The reality is that the second-year quarterback is developing, not ready yet, and no one knows where this is going.