Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl makes good on a bet after the Broncos beat the Steelers Sunday.

• Lookin’ good, Mr. Ravenstahl. [Lauren Daley, Twitter]
• The Denver Post is debating whether Josh McDaniels‘ return to New England during the playoffs is an affront to the unwritten rules of sportsmanship (y’know, since McDaniels and Belichick have no experience in the matter). See commentary from Jones, Klis, Paige. [Denver Post]
• Demaryius Thomas has stiff-armed his way into the spotlight. [Denver Post]
• Good news on Eric Decker. [MaxDenver]
• James Harrison‘s repeated fines probably led to the close call, says John Elway. [ProFootballTalk]
• How are the Broncos going to handle the Patriots’ tight ends? [National Football Post]

Quarterback Tim Tebow #15 of the Denver Broncos directs the offense against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 8, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. The Broncos defeated the Steelers 29-23 in overtime of their AFC Wild Card Playoff game. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

• Tim Tebow‘s 316 passing yards performance — an NFL postseason record-setting 31.6 yards per reception — is already the stuff of legend. We all know of Tebow’s John 3:16 eye makeup he would wear during his days at Florida, but the fact that the Denver Broncos quarterback managed to turn his playoff performance into a statistical homage to the Bible passage is a coincidence (omen?) that defies explanation. The Internet is reacting in kind. Tebow: 316 just occurred yesterday, and we were all witnesses.
• Tebow’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas set a new record on Twitter for sports tweets, hitting a 9,420 tweets-per-second pace that bested Beyonce’s baby news and fell second all-time only to the announcement of a Japanese anime movie in December.

Last night @TimTebow lead the @Denver_Broncos to an overtime playoff win and a new sports Tweets per second record: 9420

— Twitter (@twitter) January 9, 2012

• Tebow’s performance incited a plethora of praise and news from sources not-typical of a playoff quarterback’s performance. Lada Gaga talked about what the f*** a champion looked like, and the Drudge Report was at a loss for wowowowo-words.
• Tebow earned a good chunk of change on top of it all — $250,000 for the playoff win thanks to a clause in his contract. In fact, all the Broncos got paid. But, for the quarterback, let’s make it an even million, shall we?

Denver Broncos' offensive coordinator Mike McCoy congratulates quarterback Tim Tebow after Tebow scored the game-winning touchdown against the New York Giants in their NFL football game in Denver November 17, 2011. (REUTERS photo/Rick Wilking)

We’re eagerly preparing to give out BT Game Balls soon — the first-ever Playoffs BT Game Balls, as it were — but I’m jumping the gun a little bit to give two key contributors to yesterday’s win a more appropriate due.

Offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and quarterback Tim Tebow deserve a ton of credit for respectively preparing and executing a perfect gameplan against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday. The way you hear The New York Times‘s Andy Benoit say it, McCoy was prophetic:

McCoy designed some very shrewd routes against the Steelers’ coverages. Instead of going with the tight bunches and myriad crossing patterns that most coaches use to beat man coverage, he went with a barrage of outside fly routes. Those patterns ensured one-on-one coverage – as safety help is irrelevant outside in man coverage – and allowed Tebow to heave the ball downfield rather than make precise, timing-based throws to moving targets through tight windows. When McCoy did go to crossing routes, he put in wrinkles like fly patterns up the seams off the crosses or deep hooks on the outside. The idea was to use Troy Polamalu’s aggressive decision-making against him. It worked masterfully.

Meanwhile Tebow, knowing the Steelers were not going to blitz him heavily (“that’s not the way you beat Tim Tebow, that’s the way he beats you,” we were all told), took advantage of his soft pockets to hit Demaryius Thomas for over 200 yards on only four completions. When trouble came knocking, he was able to get out of the pocket and make plays with his feet — often still behind the line of scrimmage, opening up the passing game.

The league’s worst passing offense just beat the league’s best passing defense, through the air. McCoy and Tebow each showed they have the talent needed to transform this offense into something that can compete with the best in the National Football League.

Quarterback Tim Tebow #15 of the Denver Broncos high fives the fans after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 8, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. The Broncos defeated the Steelers 29-23 in overtime of their AFC Wild Card Playoff game. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

There were a lot of winners last night. There were the Denver Broncos as a whole, The Trigger Puller himself Tim Tebow and Mr. Stiff-Arm Demaryius Thomas.

Next winner on the list? CBS.

The network continued to reap the rewards of Tim Tebow-headlined matchups against the NFL’s heavy-hitters. Earlier in the season, the network fought hard to keep the Broncos-Patriots tilt on its own network, and it led to the biggest non-primetime regular season ratings of the season.

Last night? The biggest Wild Card Weekend rating/share in 24 years.

The Broncos overtime victory over the Steelers ranked 25.9/43 in metered markets, up 38% from last year’s 18.8/37 for Baltimore at Kansas City. It was the largest share since the Houston Oilers nudged the Seattle Seahawks in a back-and-forth overtime thriller 23-20 in 1988.

And the ratings don’t stop there for CBS: Phil Simms, Jim Nantz, and the rest of the viewing public will get at least one more taste of Tebow and the Broncos on CBS. The network will air the playoffs rematch between Tebow and Brady Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. MT.

View footage of the Denver Broncos celebrating their victory right here.

Still flying a mile high this morning after last night’s game… This video captured the mood perfectly.

Tim Tebow #15 of the Denver Broncos celebrates after running the ball in the end zone for a touchdown in the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the AFC Wild Card Playoff game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 8, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

What a play by Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas to conclude the game one play into overtime. Talk about the game here. We’ll have much, much, much more later.

Denver Broncos 29, Pittsburgh Steelers 23 Final.

Quarterback Dennis Dixon #10 of the Pittsburgh Steelers is sacked by Robert Ayers #56 as Justin Bannan #97 and D.J. Williams #55 of the Denver Broncos get in on the action during preseason NFL action at INVESCO Field at Mile High on August 29, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

I’m hosting a Broncos playoff party at my house so unable to run the GameBlog. I’ll check in on Twitter and in the comments occasionally.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRONCOS

Denver Bronocs quarterback Brady Quinn throws a pass as quarterback Tim Tebow watches during NFL football practice in Englewood, Colo., on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012. The Broncos are scheduled to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in a wild-card playoff game. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Nothing’s changed, says Tim Tebow‘s backup.

Brady Quinn has denied the ProFootballTalk report that he has been receiving “roughly half” of the first-team reps in practice this week.

Jeff Darlington reports that Quinn insists he is still getting “maybe a couple reps a day”, while Andrew Mason of MaxDenver quotes Quinn as saying, “Obviously the backup doesn’t get many reps, if any.”

Either Mike Florio’s source was very, very wrong (Beuller?), or Quinn is listening to his coaches and hiding a very odd secret weapon: himself. My take: it’s almost certainly the former.

The Broncos wouldn’t prepare for the possibility of benching Tim Tebow by cutting his practice reps in half. That’s idiotic; they’d just do it (bench him).

Props to Mason for the Bueller reference.

Quinn: Nothing Different About This Week’s Preparation [MaxDenver]

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reports that, per a league source, quarterback Brady Quinn has been getting “roughly half” of the first-team reps at quarterback in practice this week.

It’s not known if the Broncos are planning to use Quinn instead of Tim Tebow as a change-of-pace quarterback or if they’re preparing for the possibility of pulling Tebow. It’s also possible this report stems from a source leaking misinformation meant to distract the Steelers, though Florio says his report comes from a “league” source, not a “team” one.

This notion has been floating around the Denver Post all week. I, like Rodney Harrison in Florio’s report, thought it was utterly ridiculous. Not so ridiculous anymore.

Source: Brady Quinn gets some first-team reps in practice [ProFootballTalk]