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So maybe Tim Tebow isn't so bad after all?

Well -- he's in all honesty, not very good as a consistent professional Quarterback, but he's a hell of a competitor, and has a leadership quality that is hard to deny.

He also has 99 lives, and probably has used most of them in his brief two-year NFL career.

Yet, it took Tebow less than two full years to win his first playoff game. It took everybody's darling (except for me) -- Peyton Manning -- FIVE full seasons to win his first playoff game. Manning won his first playoff game in 2003, at the end of his 6th regular season.

So maybe I am wrong, maybe we're all wrong. All I know is this - ONE play and for that matter ONE game against a top ranked defense missing three huge components does NOT tell us anything that we did not already know.

Tim Tebow is consistently capable of being consistently inconsistent. That's it, in a nut shell! Lost? Work with me for a minute.

His game winning touchdown throw, on the first play of overtime, to fellow 2nd year WR DeMaryius Thomas for 80 yards was a stroke of brilliance. Everything about the play was perfect from a Broncos point of view. It was a first down; and Denver showed a heavy run look (2 TE). Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy had called an inside trap, play-action, Quarterback keep criss-cross several times throughout the game, and the Steelers failed to stop it.

The formation was almost exactly the same, the play action was executed on the fake inside trap, but instead of running it to James Harrison's side, as they had done a few times -- Tebow fired a bullet to Thomas who ran his route to perfection from the left side, getting inside leverage on his post/cross route.

Thomas broke away from a tackle attempt by Ike Taylor who was beat in coverage (and had a terrible day) and raced away from Taylor and Ryan Mundy (filling in for former Redskins S Ryan Clark) and even with the new overtime playoff rules - it was GAME, SET, MATCH!

By now, you know the magic of Tebow, both on Sunday and in several other games this year. Of course, you probably know how he struggled woefully against Kansas City, New England and Buffalo. I can recite every statistic known to man kind to prove my point, but the one thing I can't overcome -- is every once in a while (usually in a huge spot) you get a big dose of Tebow magic.

That will be the story of the night, the week ahead and certainly of the  entire season, no matter when this magic carpet ride comes to a crashing end.

However, the story of this game -- was the Steelers complete inability to generate a pass rush without Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel along their usually great defensive line. Without the normal push, James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley were reduced to merely average players and played like it.

The Broncos only had 8 total yards of offense in the first quarter, while the Steelers were pressing the line and had Keisel and Hampton for at least a small part of the game. Once they were gone, Dick LeBeau went conservative like a wet noodle.

Taylor was burned for a big play to Thomas, early in the 2nd quarter, on a 3rd/12 without getting his head turned around, after Pittsburgh could not generate any kind of heat on a three man rush. William Gay was beat with a perfect pass for a touchdown, without even TRYING to make a play on the ball, by turning his head. Again, it was a limited rush (four) and Pittsburgh generated no heat.  Taylor was also beaten badly by Thomas on a 58 yard pass catch and run.

The other huge component to this game, that nobody outside of Pittsburgh will be bemoaning is Jerricho Cotchery's huge drop on a difficult catch, but one he has to make - that could have been a huge gain in the first quarter. Mike Wallace, also had an enormous non-catch on a 51 yard bomb down the middle that would have put Denver on their heels. The play was initially ruled a catch, challenged by John Fox and properly overturned, albeit a very difficult call.

Another part of the game that won't be discussed,  is that Pittsburgh had a chance to win the game late in regulation after tying it up at 23-23. Ben Roethlisberger made a few big plays, but was also sacked by Von Miller deep in his own territory, for a four-yard loss and then was sacked by Elvis Dumervil for an 11 yard loss, while also fumbling and recovering the ball. Big Ben also took a delay of game and was sacked for a third time on the series - plus missed a wide open Emmanuel Sanders on a crossing route that would have put Pittsburgh in field goal position, and possibly more.

The point is - a lot of bad things had to happen for the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose this game, on the road, in dramatic fashion. It wasn't just Tim Tebow. No matter what the blow hards in the media will spout about all week long.

Before it is even asked again -- NO -- the Redskins would not have been a playoff team this year with Tim Tebow at the helm. Forget it.

***

The Giants destroyed the Atlanta Falcons (24-2) because of one reason. They converted on 4th and inches deep in Atlanta territory, which led to their first touchdown - and because they stopped the Falcons not once, but twice on the ultimate money down.

The first time, at the start of the 2nd quarter, came AFTER the Giants stuffed Jason Snelling on a 3rd/1, inside the Giants 25-yard line. For some reason, Mike Mularkey called a Matt Ryan QB sneak, instead of pounding Michael Turner for the conversion. The Giants blew it up rather easily. I liked the decision to go for it, I don't like using your best players. Simple.

New York had their own opportunity inside the Atlanta-6 and wisely called Brandon Jacobs number who was initially stopped but deftly spun out of contact and plunged forward for the first down. Manning then used play-action to fire a scoring strike to Hakeem Nicks.

Once again, in the 3rd Quarter - down 10-2 with plenty of time and the ball inside the Giants-25 yard-line, Mularkey and Mike Smith rolled the dice again and tried Matt Ryan for a 2nd time on the QB sneak, and it was promptly stuffed by Jason Pierre-Paul and Chris Canty.

You go back to the decision to go for it in overtime against the Saints, deep in their own territory - which backfired - and because it was a STUPID decision, you get gun shy about using your best weapon?

Turner wasn't even on the field for the 2nd attempt on fourth-down. According to AdvancedNFLStats.com, teams usually convert on 4th/1 about 74% of the time. You use your best weapon, period. Or, you at least have him on the field as a decoy on play action, or to keep the Giants honest. It also did not help that the Falcons offensive line had no push at all, the entire day.

The Giants had their usual flair through the air on a couple of big plays, specifically a Mario Manningham perfect touchdown strike from Eli Manning, but it was the running of Brandon Jacobs and at time Ahmad Bradshaw, along with the complete domination of the Falcons offense that pushed them into a 2007 playoff rematch with the Green Bay Packers.

***Houston rolled to their first ever win in their first ever playoff game as the Texans on Saturday with a win over a fairly tough Bengals team. Of course, I was impressed as always with Arian Foster. Andre Johnson got into the act as well, finally looking like the Andre Johnson we all know.

It also helped that J.J. Watt had a tremendous Ryan Kerrigan-esque Interception and touchdown return near the end of the first half that changed the fortunes for both sides.

I will have more on the performance of top free-agent offensive-center Chris Myers, along with a review of Matt Flynn in a post coming in the next day or so.

**The Saints, outlasted the Lions and the tag-team duo of Matthew Stafford and Calvin "MegaTron" Johnson down in New Orleans on Saturday night. Is anybody surprised? The only thing that you take away -- the Lions actually had a chance to prevent 14 points from the Saints, but dropped easy interception opportunities. Sean Payton also rolled the dice a couple of times, converting two key fourth downs. The most interesting call was Drew Brees leaping over the top of the pile on 4th/1 inside the Saints-40 to get the first. He got popped pretty good, and while I didn't love the decision to go for it or to expose Brees on a QB leap, the Saints (unlike the Falcons) do not have a weapon like Michael Turner.

Their other 4th down conversion was a left toss-sweep that was executed brilliantly, after a key block by King George, VA native Jermon Bushrod, at left-tackle.

Bottom line - some coaches have major onions. Some just don't know how to slice them.

Chris Russell // RussellC@Redskins.com //  www.twitter.com/russellmania980 // www.facebook.com (Chris Russell or ESPN 980)