It’s Hard Not To Believe In Tebow Now

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As opposed to last night’s game between the Giants and the Cowboys in which I had a vested interest in the Giants, I didn’t have any cash money on the Broncos or the Bears in their game at Denver yesterday.

But I shouted like a little kid in my truck when I heard the call of Matt Prater’s attempt at a 59-yard field goal to tie the game. When he made it, I shouldn’t have been surprised as I was – it happened in the high altitude of Denver and Prater’s a great kicker, but more than that, Tim Tebow must have willed the ball through the uprights.

I felt sorry for Marion Barber, the Bears’ running back who inexplicably tumbled out of bounds with less than two minutes remaining. The Bears led 10-7 at the time, and the Broncos were out of timeouts. Had he stayed in bounds, the Broncos probably would have had only 20 to 25 seconds to engineer a comeback. As it was, they started their field goal-tying drive with 56 seconds left.

Then in overtime, the Bears drove to the Denver 37 – within Robbie Gould field-goal range – and gave the ball to Barber on third down. He looked like he was going to get to the yellow line for a first down at the very least. He might have even scored. But a late strip of the ball led to a Broncos’ recovery, and Tebow drove his team far enough so that Prater could win the game with a 51-yard field goal.

Tebow was 3 for 16 for 45 yards through three quarters and 18 for 24 for 191 yards the rest of the way. I still have a hard time believing that God favors him over everyone else on the field, but Tebow was at his most magical yesterday, to the point that I’m thinking about going to church every Sunday to see if it will work for me – emphasis on “thinking about.” In fact, if you keep reading, you’ll see that I’m actually going to be at a casino this Sunday.

Tebow is 7-1 as a starter, and the Broncos are 8-5, two games in front of Oakland in the AFC West. Could this Sunday’s game against New England in Denver be a preview of the AFC championship game?

Maybe not, but I certainly hope so.

TONIGHT’S GAME: Not sure who will be watching this one around the country, but the Seahawks host the Rams on Monday Night Football. Pete Carroll’s team is favored by 10 ½ points. I like the Rams to cover for no apparent reason other than the fact that Seattle is not good enough to be favored by 10 ½ over anyone. Seahawks 17, Rams 13.

SEAHAWKS VIEWING PARTY: Hope you’ll join me and the 710 ESPN Seattle crew at the Clearwater Casino’s Beach Rock Lounge Sunday morning at 10 for the Seahawks’ game against the Bears at Soldier Field. We’ll have all kinds of giveaways along with a trivia contest at halftime and a touchdown-dance contest at the end of the game to win tickets to the 49ers-Seahawks’ game on Christmas Eve.

JIM MORA COLUMN: Here’s a link to today’s column in the Kitsap Sun that tries to determine how the former Seahawks’ coach will do at UCLA.