Does Tim Tebow Look Like an N.F.L. Starter to You?

Just to be clear: Matt Prater won Sunday’s Broncos game with a 52-yard field goal in overtime. Tim Tebow did not snap for it, hold for it or kick it.

But he will get most of the credit for the win anyway.

The unstoppable force that is the Tebow Legend got a new chapter on Sunday, when he shrugged off a day full of wayward passes and crunching sacks in his first start this season to direct a comeback that gave the Broncos an 18-15 victory over the Dolphins. Denver emerged from the game with a victory, but does Coach John Fox still need a quarterback?

Judy Battista covered the game for The Times, and she summed up the good and the bad of Tebow’s day in a few quick paragraphs:

For 55 minutes, Tim Tebow had barely looked like a functioning N.F.L quarterback. He took sacks and threw poorly. He was hesitant and overwhelmed.

The Broncos’ coaching staff, which had made him the starter just two weeks ago, had so little confidence in him that through three quarters, he attempted just eight passes.

But with five minutes left and the Miami Dolphins playing prevent defense, Tebow turned into the player who inspires fans to erect billboards and opposing teams to honor him when he visits, rallying the Broncos to two touchdowns.

And when Denver lined up for the 2-point attempt that would send the game to overtime, it seemed that only the Dolphins had never seen highlights from Tebow’s Heisman Trophy-winning career. They had their defense spread across the field, leaving gaping holes between each player. Tebow took the snap and ran off right tackle, untouched, for the conversion.

From there, the result seemed a fait accompli.

Of course the Broncos won. Because nothing ever seems to go wrong for Tebow, especially in Florida, where he could probably run for governor — and win. Tebow won a state title in high school, two B.C.S. crowns and a Heisman Trophy with the Gators, then scrubbed the state’s beaches clean using only a washcloth and warded off hurricanes by standing on the sand and staring them down as they pondered coming ashore. (O.K., only parts of that sentence are true, although maybe some in Florida would argue that all of it is.)

But Tebow doesn’t play in Florida anymore. He plays in Denver, and Sunday’s victory made the Broncos’ Tebow conundrum only more maddening. Is he the miscast fullback/quarterback who threw for only 24 yards in the first three quarters on Sunday, when he had more sacks (4) than completions (3)? Or is he the proven winner who directed drives of 80 and 56 yards to force overtime.

Sure, Sunday’s comeback was stirring — “Denver and Tebow have won!” the CBS announcer Kevin Harlan said as Prater’s field goal sailed through — but Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk laid most of the credit for Tebow’s success at the feet of a horrible performance by the Dolphins.

When Tebow missed throws, he often missed them by 10-15 yards. The Broncos wouldn’t let him throw on third down. It was one of the worst 55 minutes of quarterback play I’ve ever seen. At one point, the crowd chanted “Tebow sucks.” He didn’t remotely look like an NFL quarterback.