Tebow has shot at Elway-like stats versus Patriots

Expectations: We know what Tim Tebow can do through the air against prevent defenses (the kind that prevent victories), but he'll really be under the gun Sunday against a New England secondary that recently turned Rex Grossman into Sonny Jurgensen and was burned by Colts nobody Dan Orlovsky, who completed 30 of 37 for 353 yards and two touchdowns. Given the problems Bill Belichick's defense has stopping anybody, not even Tebow can be excused for waiting until late in the fourth quarter to get into gear.

Word play Has anybody seen video of Yu Darvish, who might be the next Japanese pitcher to be overpaid by a MLB team? By any chance is he a whirling Darvish?

A pattern Ryan Braun is baseball's 10th MVP to be linked to performance-enhancing drugs sometime in his life, so let's not act so surprised.

Futurewatch Navy opens its 2012 football season Sept. 1 against Notre Dame in Dublin, Ireland. Guess who's the home team?

Plug You can hear some of what I think and the little that I know on the "Sports Scene with Greg Bicouvaris," at noon today on "The Game" - 102.1 FM/1490 AM.

In shadows The Houston Texans, still winning despite being down to their third-string QB in former North Carolina Tar Heel T.J. Yates, won't be undone by too much hype. They're 10-3, but receiving so little attention from the national media, they might as well be playing in Canada.

Newbies This must be the year for young, untested NFL quarterbacks to shine. Yates took Houston 80 yards in a little more than two minutes to beat the Bengals, while Arizona's John Skelton came off the bench to relieve an injured Kevin Kolb in the first quarter and led the Cardinals to victory over the 49ers. The Cardinals are 4-1 with Skelton behind center.

L'il brother Eli Manning isn't generally regarded as an elite field general, yet he's leading the NFL this season in game-winning, fourth-quarter drives. People underrate his leadership qualities because with his helmet off he looks and acts like the QB from Mayberry. Nobody gives Opie enough credit.

In passing The Ravens, Patriots and Steelers - likely bound for the playoffs - all look a little unreliable. The race to the Super Bowl in the AFC is wide open.

Let it go Ndamukong Suh has earned his reputation as a dirty player, but now that he's back from suspension, it's not the media's job to demand an apology from him. If he has something to confess, he'll call Oprah.

A sprint The compressed NBA schedule calls for teams to play 66 games in 124 days. Do the math; that's not a lot of time off. The product, already suspect during the regular season, will suffer.

Still around Kwame Brown, generally considered the biggest bust among No. 1 overall draft picks in modern NBA history, just signed with the Golden State Warriors, his seventh team and fifth in six seasons. Brown, who was drafted by Michael Jordan for the Wizards out of high school, is still only 29, which means he's got time to play for another half-dozen teams before he's finished.

TV timeout By squashing the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers, David Stern was guilty of a huge conflict of interest, but it's amusing to hear that charge leveled against the commish on ESPN, the World Wide Leader in conflicts of interest.

One-two punch With Paul joining Blake Griffin, the Clippers feature the NBA's most highlight-ready point guard/big man combo. Second most fun to watch are Steve Nash and anybody he throws the ball to.

He said it Fox analyst Howie Long, reacting to a growing trend in the NFL: "I don't know if there's an Imodium A-D for Twitter, but some players have Twitter-rrhea."