The Denver Broncos enter its first NFL playoff game since the 2005 season, but the team is nowhere near a good state. The team has lost its last three games and Tim Tebow hasn't gotten it done offensively. All that combined with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to Mile High, the 12-4 Steelers? This will require a miracle, and it doesn't look like Tebow Time works miracles any longer.
In his Monday Morning Quarterback column, SI's Peter King adds this all together and doesn't like what he sees for the Broncos:
Tebow's going to have to be more efficient running the ball, and Willis McGahee, who knows the Steelers well from his time in Baltimore, is going to have to make Troy Polamalu pay when he comes down to be the eighth man in the box to stop the run. But you usually don't win a physical game against the Steeler defense.
Had the NFL done reseeding for the playoffs, we can be sure that the Broncos would not be the home team in the playoffs. The Broncos went just 3-5 at home this season, which does not bode well at all.
But playoff time seems built for what we saw of Tebow Time during the team's six-game winning streak. Or maybe Tebow Time has been an illusion, meant to seduce us and then drop us like flies. We'll find out Sunday.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Denver. For more in-depth coverage of this matchup, head to Broncos blog Mile High Report and Steelers blog Behind the Steel Curtain. For more news and notes from around the NFL, visit SB Nation's NFL news hub.