Tim Tebow led Denver to a comeback win after trailing Miami by 15 points in the 4th.

MIAMI — What do you make of Tim Tebow?

Is he the quarterback who looked lost for three quarters and could not hit open receivers against the winless Dolphins? Or is Tebow the magical player who led the Broncos to 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and overtime during a thrilling 18-13 victory?

No one is expecting Tebow to come clsoe to duplicating John Elways historic career, but even the great Elway had his early moments of erratic play and inconsistency. The fans in Denver will need to displa ysome patience as the Tebow era unfolds. 

After watching Tebow on Sunday, I don’t have a clear answer. Neither do the Denver Broncos (2-4).

But the Broncos left Sun Life Stadium knowing their starting quarterback is capable of overcoming three quarters of awful football. Football spreads

In essence, Tebow simultaneously added to his myth and legend in one wild game.

“Without a doubt, not everybody that plays in this league, or any league has ‘it,’” Broncos coach John Fox said, praising Tebow. “It’s a great quality to have. We got a guy, No. 7[John Elway], who I work with every day, he had ‘it.’”

The intangibles are apparent. Tebow has heart, smarts and charisma. He works extremely hard and says the right things. Broncos players in the locker room also said they believe in their new starting quarterback. Tebow feels the same about his teammates. That is part of his legend. Football odds

But heart doesn’t throw the ball accurately downfield for 20 yards. Tebow failed miserably in that department. Charisma cannot fix questionable throwing mechanics, which led to Tebow completing only 13 of 27 passes for 161 yards. That has some thinking Tebow is all hype, all myth.

Tebow did not look like a starting NFL quarterback for a majority of the game against Miami. He wasn’t accurate, he held the ball too long and was sacked seven times. Things were so bad that Denver ran the ball 39 times to protect Tebow, who was putting on an embarrassing display of errant passes. Tebow and the Broncos didn’t convert on third down until the second half.

When asked if Tebow played well enough to win, unimpressed Dolphins linebacker Karlos Dansbry bluntly said, “No. No. Not at all.”  Hey Kris, take the victory, give your quarterback some love and maybe your season will have a cinderalla ending.

Tebow admitted he has to get “a lot better.” He had two weeks to prepare for the Dolphins and only played well for about eight minutes, including overtime. Tebow led two scoring drives of 80 and 56 yards — capped by a pair of touchdown throws — and was clutch on a two-point conversion to force the extra period.

The Dolphins did manage to sack Tim Tebow seven times and limited him to 13-of-27 passing.

“As a football player, as an athlete, you can’t lose confidence in yourself,” Tebow said. “Because if you do, then you’ve lost already. More importantly, I kept believing in the people around me that eventually we were going to be able to get things going. Eventually we did.”

Tebow now is in tricky territory.

Denver won the game. Therefore, Tebow is entrenched as the starting quarterback. But the Broncos need to dig deeper to find out if their 2010 first-round pick is good enough to win games long term.

Based on what I saw for most of the game, Tebow is not the best quarterback on Denver’s roster right now. Kyle Orto is. But Tebow is the most popular Broncos quarterback — and that’s part of the problem. Or ist it. Soemtimes it is better to lucky that good. Tim Tebow has an electricity and charisma that permeates his presence. This can shield and protect you when you are in the development process. 

The Broncos might not admit it, but the team succumbed to the immense public pressure to start Tebow. There is a very large following of Tebow supporters who want to see him succeed. But if Denver’s coaching staff truly thought he was the best quarterback, the Broncos would have given Tebow the job in Week 1.