In the midst of yesterday's game -- which we'll admit was preceded by the consumption of one pound of bacon (pre-cooked weight, in our defense?) -- we were asked by Local Quipster whether right at that instant we would take Tebow or Christian Ponder as our starting QB. And without a hitch, we (as well as commenter Brandon) replied, "Ponder."

With almost 24 hours of hindsight and a chance to digest some if not all of that bacon -- as well as plenty of game action -- our answer is most definitely the same.

Tebowmania is a fun story. A great story. One of the best NFL story lines in years. And we know: You can only say, "Yeah, but ..." for so long until excuses and exceptions ring hollow. Yeah, but it's Denver's defense doing the heavy lifting. Yeah, but his throwing motion is slower than Jim Thome going from first to third. Yeah, but the Vikings secondary is so bad that a high school QB could have hit those receivers in the second half. Yeah, but why does he have to shove religion in everyone's face?

Yeah, but ... here are things that we still believe to be true.

*Tebow's success, like a discount dairy product, has a rapidly approaching expiration date. We've heard him referred to as this year's Wildcat, and it's absolutely true. NFL players are too fast, too big and too smart to be fooled forever. He's simply not accurate enough, nor is the offense he runs sophisticated enough, to succeed consistently against functional NFL defenses.

*A team simply can't expect to win every game -- certainly not important games -- by muddling through vast stretches of truly incompetent offensive play and then pulling it out in the end. There is no denying Tebow has an "it" factor at the ends of games. There is also no denying the incredible amount of good fortune that has gone into his success this season.

*Ponder -- a year younger in terms of NFL experience, let's not forget -- made two terrible throws yesterday. Overall, though, he continues to be everything one could ask for and more from a rookie learning on the job. He's showing major flashes of potential and he's making correctable mistakes.

So yeah, what we're saying is we'll take the young 1-5 throwing quarterback who can run a little over the young 6-1 running quarterback who can throw a little. The crystal ball says five years from now it won't even be close as to which is the more productive starting QB in the NFL.