Tim Tebow, John Elway, and the Mastery of the Two-Minute Drill

The Drive, an improbable feat at the time, would be considered commonplace in today's NFL.

There were plenty of good games and powerful statements from contenders yesterday, but the big story you're hearing around the watercooler today is the 1-4 Broncos' comeback win over the 0-5 Dolphins. Such is the polarizing intrigue surrounding Tim Tebow.

I was amazed by what I saw from Tebow in those last five minutes, but not for the reasons you'd think.  (No LeBron, I don't believe throwing for 161 yards to narrowly beat an 0-5 team proves you are a "winner.")  Watching an inexperienced and inaccurate quarterback erase a 15 point deficit in five minutes was just the latest example of how coaches and players have mastered the most exciting of football feats: the two-minute drill.

According to the NFL, 21 times this year a team has come back to win after trailing by 10 points or more.  Much of that has to do with how proficient teams have become at the hurry-up offense.  Just think of what we've seen in the past seven weeks:

- In the first game of the 2011 season, Drew Brees got the ball, down 15 points to the Packers, with five minutes left in the game.  He drove the Saints to a touchdown in three minutes and took them to the 1-yard line in the final seconds before Mark Ingram was stopped on the last play of the game.

- In Week 3, down 13 points, Matthew Stafford led the Lions on three scoring drives in the final 11 minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the Vikings.  Detroit won in overtime.

- In Week 4, trailing by 10 with five minutes left, Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes to lead the Giants to victory over the Cardinals.

- Having been stifled for much of last week's game against the Cowboys, Tom Brady marched the Patriots 80 yards to the game-winning touchdown in a mere two minutes.

Back in the '90s, offenses could barely operate a two-minute drill without the aid of timeouts, spikes, and sideline passes.  Now, everything has become so streamlined that a quarterback can get the play call, relay it to his receivers, and snap the ball in a matter of seconds.  Ten years ago, with 1:30 left in Super Bowl XXXVI, John Madden famously suggested that Tom Brady kneel to play for overtime against the Rams.  Such a decision, conservative at the time, would be outright cowardice today.

In the 1986 AFC Championship game, John Elway's Broncos had 5:39 seconds to score when they got the ball on their own 2 yard line.  Five minutes later, Elway completed a game-tying touchdown to Mark Jackson.  His feat was so monumental that it deservedly earned the nickname "The Drive."

Yesterday, Tebow led the Broncos back from twice the deficit in the same amount of time that it took Elway to lead The Drive.  That says something about the young quarterback, but it says even more about how much offenses have evolved in the last twenty-five years.  Thanks to the mastery of the two-minute drill, no lead is safe, and no team can be counted out until their opponent is taking a knee.  The last-minute comeback, once an exception, is now expected, and the game has never been more exciting.

Image found here.