For all of the recent positive stories about Tim Tebow’s chances of making the Philadelphia Eagles, coach Chip Kelly played him as the fourth quarterback on Saturday night, and time is running out in the preseason for Tebow to make a grand impression.
Tebow came in after Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley took their snaps in a 40-17 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Tebow entered the game in the fourth quarter, and didn’t get many plays to make an impression one way or another. The Eagles have played two preseason games, and the third preseason game is traditionally the one in which starters play the most, so there's a good chance Tebow won't see any game action next week.
Tebow might have done enough in practice to make up Kelly’s mind about whether he'll make the 53-man roster, and maybe the Eagles were auditioning Barkley for a trade. But teams don’t generally keep four quarterbacks and in both games Tebow has been the fourth one in.
Tebow didn’t have much of a chance to do anything one way or another on Saturday night. First, the good: Tebow can run as well as any quarterback in the NFL, and he got a huge gain on a zone-read option. The defensive end crashed down, and Tebow kept the ball and ran through the defense for a 26-yard gain. If Tebow would get a chance to play for the Eagles in the regular season, there’s no doubt the read-option would be very tough to defend.
Tebow is known for his running ability, but he has obviously been told he needs to develop as a pocket passer. So on a third-down play on his first drive, he stayed in the pocket … and stayed … and stayed … and was finally sacked for a 12-yard loss. He was bailed out by an illegal contact penalty on the defense.
On Tebow's third drive, he kept a read-option, ran to his left and appeared to lunge into the end zone for what looked like a rushing touchdown. He passed up throwing to a wide-open receiver running along the back line of the end zone to try to run it in, and a replay review showed Tebow was out of bounds just short of the end zone. He should have passed it for an easy touchdown, and that's the type of play critics will point to when they debate his ability to stick in the NFL as a quarterback. Running back Raheem Mostert ran in for a 1-yard touchdown on the next play.
Tebow didn’t have a ton of opportunities to pass the ball. On his second drive he hit the running back on a check-down pass for an 8-yard run after his 26-yard run. At the end of that drive, he rolled to his left after being pressured, and it appeared he expected his receiver to break deep to the back of the end zone. His intended receiver didn’t do that and Tebow’s third-down throw sailed high out of the back of the end zone. The Eagles got the ball back with less than a minute to go, and instead of taking a knee right away they dialed up a receiver screen, which Tebow completed for the last play of the game. Tebow was 2-of-5 for 13 passing yards, and had 31 rushing yards on three attempts.
There is plenty of interest in Tebow this preseason, but Saturday night didn't tell us much about his chances of making the Eagles. He might not get a chance next week either.
No comments:
Post a Comment