[FearedSanctity]

Flashback: Tim Tebow-style win the result of John Elway's NFL debut By Terry Frei The Denver Post The young NFL quarterback operating under a white-hot media spotlight went 1-for-8 passing, for 14 yards. His team won, and he was moved to say after the game: "Based on statistics, I was terrible. But based on the decisions I made, I was pleased with my performance." That was the Broncos' John Elway​ in the visiting team's dressing room at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium, shortly after Denver rallied to beat the Steelers 14-10 in the Sept. 4, 1983, season opener. After suffering a badly bruised elbow, he gave way to veteran Steve DeBerg​ for the second half. While DeBerg engineered the winning drive and threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ron Egloff with 4:54 remaining, he threw only sparingly, and the Denver totals for the day wound up 5-for-16 passing, for only 49 yards. The five completions matched the lowest total for the Broncos in a victory, and it had previously happened in 1965, 1974, and 1978. Denver hadn't won with five or fewer completions since until Tim Tebow​ was 2-for-8, for 69 yards, in the Broncos' 17-10 victory at Kansas City on Sunday. In Elway's debut game, the Broncos rushed for 138 yards on 38 attempts, with tailback Sammy Winder​ accounting for 96 yards on 20 carries. So it wasn't as impressive a ground-game performance as the Broncos had against Kansas City, piling up 244 yards on 55 carries. But on that day in 1983, they won too, with even fewer passing yards. And there even seemed to be a bit of a quarterback controversy, with one school of thought being that Denver was rushing Elway. "I can't figure out this quarterback situation anyway," DeBerg said that afternoon. "I'm just going with the flow." Again making it clear that he wasn't going to be a willing backup, or even a cordial tutor for Elway, DeBerg noted: "Everybody has to learn. You don't just come into the league and do it even if you were a great college quarterback. You can't get by on talent alone in the NFL." Elway was on the sideline for the second half, with his arm bandaged. "I'm going to have to learn how to throw with a pad on my elbow if I have to play on AstroTurf," he said. "I first hurt my elbow in Minnesota (on artificial turf) last week. It was fine before the game, but every time I hit the ground, I landed on the elbow and it got worse." Elway added: "If I play like that and we win, I'll be happy. Steve came in and did a great job in the second half. . . . I'm just not throwing well. I think I'm trying too hard to be careful and not make mistakes." Denver coach Dan Reeves​ noted: "John has some rough spots. He's definitely in a learning process." Any of that sound familiar?